Awhile back Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that shortly before the election it was going to air what basically amounted to an extended Swift Boat Liars for Bush ad billed as "news" on the 62 television stations in its network, including many in battleground states.  Bloggers everywhere (like me for instance) reacted with disgust and anger.  Conservatives and liberals alike largely agreed that it was wrong to air this propaganda and pass it off as news.  Anti-Sinclair websites appeared, letter writing campaigns began, and people threatened boycotts of Sinclair and especially of its sponsors.  Sponsors began to pull out, and then an amazing thing happened...

Sinclair wilted under the pressure and aired something which might actually be considered somewhat fair and balanced.  Sharp turnaround for the network that refused to air Ted Koppel reading of the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.

In USA Today, Andrew Kantor writes about how SBG learned what happens when you attract the negative attention of the blogosphere...

From Sinclair is the latest to feel the power of blogs:

...Those stations were scheduled to air "Stolen Honor." That is, till the Internet kicked in. Thanks to the advance warning, bloggers spread the word (and e-mail spread it further). A well-orchestrated boycott and writing campaign began, aimed not at the stations, but at the advertisers. Spurred on by sites that appeared literally overnight such as Boycott Sinclair Broadcast Group and Badvertisers, people in Sinclair's 39 markets, armed with phone numbers and e-mail addresses, started contacting the local businesses that are the lifeblood of the company.

Sinclair's stock took a nosedive. Stockholders threatened a lawsuit, saying that the company's execs were making bad business decisions for political reasons. Allegations of insider trading surfaced.

And Sinclair blinked.

What aired instead was A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media, which was described by Sinclair as a news show that "focus[ed] in part on the use of documentaries and other media to influence voting, which emerged during the 2004 political campaigns."

People who saw it said it was pretty darned pro-Kerry...

...Naturally, Sinclair didn't want to admit that it had, as one site put it, "caved." A company press release said, "Contrary to numerous inaccurate political and press accounts, the Sinclair stations will not be airing the documentary Stolen Honor in its entirety. At no time did Sinclair ever publicly announce that it intended to do so." Bloggers were quick to point out that wasn't true — various TV guides had already published listings for that week that included Stolen Honor....

Kantor goes on to speculate as to why the blogosphere has so much power, and the effect that has on the media and the world.  It's a good read, I recommend it.

Previous articles on Unbecoming Levity which discuss Sinclair Broadcast Group's attempt to affect the election:

by Abacquer on October 12, 2004 11:48AM (EDT)
Sinclair Broadcast Group who are going to be airing a "documentary" on 62 television stations ...
by Abacquer on October 12, 2004 10:51PM (EDT)
Sinclair Broadcasting... From Copps tickets Sinclair (Variety via Yahoo News): ...FCC commissioner Michael J. Copps ...
by Abacquer on October 12, 2004 11:07PM (EDT)
Your decision to air a so-called " documentary " about Senator Kerry's antiwar effort--his ...
by Abacquer on October 20, 2004 09:44PM (EDT)
Sinclair on anti-Kerry documentary (San Francisco Chronicle) Sinclair fires reporter who criticized plans for program ...