"Nightline" brou-haha

Anyone here watch the "Nightline" last night, where they read the names of the dead from Iraq? I did, but not on ABC...

The story's been in the news for about a week, that Nightline was going to do this and that Sinclair Broadcasting (who own the local ABC affiliate) decided to not run it. They contributed funds to the Bush/Cheney Re-Election committee, and they're pretty right-wing.

The local Fox affiliate decided to run the show for those of us who have the affiliates owned by Sinclair. I watched it, and flipped during commercials to the ABC affiliate to see what kind of lousy-ass excuse of a program they ran in its place.

I think the whole thing was made into a political thing, which is unfortunate. The names of the dead need to be read, so we can remember them. I think the Sinclair group are about as unpatriotic as the "liberal elite" media supposedly is.

Anyway, anyone else effected by Sinclair's asshole decision? Anyone know what the hell I'm talking about?

Originally posted by Taboo # 7 Anyone here watch the "Nightline" last night, where they read the names of the dead from Iraq? I did, but not on ABC...The story's been in the news for about a week, that Nightline was going to do this and that Sinclair Broadcasting (who own the local ABC affiliate) decided to not run it. They contributed funds to the Bush/Cheney Re-Election committee, and they're pretty right-wing. The local Fox affiliate decided to run the show for those of us who have the affiliates owned by Sinclair. I watched it, and flipped during commercials to the ABC affiliate to see what kind of lousy-ass excuse of a program they ran in its place.I think the whole thing was made into a political thing, which is unfortunate. The names of the dead need to be read, so we can remember them. I think the Sinclair group are about as unpatriotic as the "liberal elite" media supposedly is.Anyway, anyone else effected by Sinclair's asshole decision? Anyone know what the hell I'm talking about?

Can't quite believe the attempt to politicize that move by Nightline. It's just a simple acknowledgement to some men and women who've paid the ultimate price. Hopefully, none of those Sinclair people are among those who've wondered about the tragedy of the Pat Tillman situation, wherein a man with tremendous principles also gave his life, and totally shunned all of the media hype about a pro footballer becoming an Army Ranger, because he knew damn well that he wasn't any better a person than others in his unit. It's quite simple: the media focus on Tillman after his death is not something he would've wanted at all, unless recognition was paid also to those who are in a similar circumstance.

Of course, I heard the Sinclair bit while surfing the radio and catching a bit of Howard Stern, who was also incredulous about the "wisdom" of such a move.

Didn't watch the show locally here, but I know it was run on the local ABC affiliate as scheduled. What did your station run in its place, some lame-ass infomercial. Nice to see Fox provide a public service for your area.

The local Fox affiliate did us a service, but the national network did a disservice this morning by having some neo-con bitch on talking about how "un-American" Ted Koppel was in running this program. It's truly a sad day in America when the simple reading of names is seen as some sort of political "tool"

The dragon lady (I didn't bother to catch her name, that would be giving her a small measure of noteriety which I don't feel like conferring) said "why didn't Ted Koppel read the names of those killed in Afghanistan?" The answer's simple: Because the death toll in Iraq is much more staggering. No disrespect to those who died in Afghanistan, but the simple fact is the reason we're even pausing to remember the dead is because we're not so certain their lives were given for a good cause. Afghanistan was clearly a necessary action, Iraq is a bit harder to tell.

I just get so pissed at the way conservatives have been dominating the national dialogue on everything thus far we've done. If you disagree, they drape themselves in the flag and call you unpatriotic. What did these fuckwits ever do that made them the moral authorities when it comes to what constitutes "love of country"? Give me a fucking break, the neanderthals currently in chrage don't give a shit about freedom. They care about power.

Okay, rant done