| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Stolen Honor was a project of Red, White and Blue Productions, whose public affairs are managed by Quantum Communications ([1]), a company owned by Republican lobbyist Charles Gerow ([2]). The production company's website states that
According to conservative commentator Deroy Murdock,
The producer of Stolen Honor was journalist, Vietnam War veteran, and private military corporation executive Carlton SherwoodCarlton Sherwood is a journalist and producer. Sherwood is best known for his work on a 1980 series investigating a fund-raising scandal involving the Pauline Fathers, and the Vatican's role in covering it up. The combined Gannett News Service team won a, who was part of the 1980 Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a United States literary award given out each April. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in the United States. The prize was-winning Gannett News Service team.
Sherwood is Executive Vice President and Director of Communications of the WVC3 Group, Inc., a security and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, VirginiaReston is an unincorporated " planned city" and census-designated place located in western Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. As of the 2000 census, the community had a total population of 56,407. A strain of Ebola called E. Sherwood previously worked for Republican Tom RidgeThomas Joseph Ridge (born August 26, 1946) is the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Prior to that appointment, Secretary Ridge served as Assistant to the President for the Office of Homeland Security, created in October 2001 after the Se when he was governor of Pennsylvania. Some time later, with Ridge serving as Secretary of Homeland Security for George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. His first four-year term as President began on January 20, 2001 following the controversial U. presidential election, 2000, where for the first time in American's administration, that agency awarded Sherwood a federal contract to create a government anti-terrorism website.
In 19921992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday. Events January January The Internet Society is formed. January 1 Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General January 1 George H. Bush becomes the fi, the PBSNote: Public Broadcasting Services is a broadcaster in Malta. It is unrelated to the U. broadcaster of this article. The Public Broadcasting Service PBS is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with nearly 379 member TV stations in the Unite television series Frontline reported that Inquisition, Sherwood's "purportedly independent investigation" of the Unification Church, had been subject to prior review and revision by its subject. [6]
In early October 2004, it was announced that Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns television stations in nearly one-quarter of the United States, had ordered all of its stations to air Stolen Honor in the days leading up to the November 2 presidential election.[7] This has raised concerns that such a direct criticism of Kerry would violate the " equal time" provision of the Communications Act that governs airtime for political candidates. FCC chairman Michael Powell has declared that such an action would not be a violation of the provision. A former FCC chairman, Reed Hundt, responded that Powell was offering "tacit and plain encouragement of the use of the Sinclair airwaves to pursue a smear campaign." A spokesperson for the company said that the airing would be followed by a panel discussion, which Senator Kerry would be asked to join, possibly as an effort to satisfy the equal time clause. The Kerry campaign declined the invitation. Sinclair did not accept Michael Moore's offer for free broadcast of his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 to balance its reporting.
Sinclair's own Washington Bureau Chief, Jon Lieberman , condemned the planned broadcast of the video in an interview in the Baltimore Sun: "It's biased political propaganda, with clear intentions to sway this election ... For me, it's not about right or left -- it's about what's right or wrong in news coverage this close to an election."
Shortly after making this statement, Lieberman was fired by Sinclair. Sinclair Vice-President Mark Hyman attributed the firing to Lieberman, also the television chain's lead reporter, "speak[ing] to the press about company business." Lieberman contends that he was fired for his criticism of the plan to air Stolen Honor, a plan that he said originated with Hyman.
After the announcement to air Stolen Honor the public controversy caused Sinclair stock to drop considerably, and over 100 advertisers pulled out their ads. In response, Sinclair announced that it had never intended to air Stolen Honor in the hour slot in the first place, indicating that they might instead show clips of the video in a discussion panel format.
More than 100 Democratic members of the United States Congress asked the FCC to consider the propriety of the broadcast, and Senator Ted Kennedy asked the Justice Department to investigate. The Democratic National Committee filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission.