Although "Stolen Honor" is available online on DVD, Sinclair insists that airing the tilted documentary constitutes a news event, which thereby lifts any obligation Sinclair has to grant Kerry equal time. (It was during the "Nightline" controversy that Sinclair issued a statement: "We do not believe political statements should be disguised as news content.")

The Fairness Doctrine, which required television and radio stations to present an opposing side, was destroyed by President Reagan's veto of congressional renewal. Still, broadcast stations -- in exchange for being given broadcast spectrum for free -- are obligated during campaigns to offer each candidate equal time.

"Sinclair's acting more like a cable channel," says Hundt, who notes that broadcasters have unique responsibilities. "Broadcasters are given spectrum for free with a quid pro quo to serve the public interest."

Founded by Julian Smith, Sinclair started out as a single UHF station in Baltimore in 1971. In 33 years it has grown into 62 stations in 39 markets, capturing 24 percent of the national TV audience. The company touts itself as "the nation's largest commercial television broadcasting company not owned by a network." Sinclair's stations air a variety of programming from all the various networks. Most of Sinclair's stations are second- and third-tier outlets -- the company doesn't have any ABC, CBS or NBC affiliates in top 10 markets. Instead, a typical Sinclair station would be WMMP, a UPN affiliate in Charleston, S.C. Sinclair is now run by four of Smith's sons, including CEO David Smith.

According to the Washington Post, "Little is known about the views of David Smith, who told the Baltimore Sun in a rare 1995 interview that he and his brothers try 'to maintain as much anonymity as we can.' As for Smith's view, he was quoted in a January 5th 'Television Week' article, complaining about the 'political agenda' of the 'liberal media.'"

Smiths anonymity was inadvertently peeled back during the summer of 1996 when he was arrested in Baltimore for picking up a female prostitute who performed what arresting police officers reported as a "perverted act" on him as he drove north on the Jones Falls Expressway in a company-owned Mercedes. Smith was charged with a misdemeanor sex offense.

The company expanded in the 1990s by taking advantage of local marketing agreements in which it effectively operated another company's stations, including selling the ad time. These arrangements allowed Sinclair to run more than one station in a single market, creating de facto duopolies. But Sinclair has been stuck at roughly the same number of television stations for several years. In order to grow dramatically it needs the federal government to further relax the number of outlets one company can own. Business Week noted last year, "If ownership restrictions are eased, Sinclair is poised to reap huge benefits by being able to add more TV stations, further reducing costs." As it happens, the Bush administration, and the Bush-appointed FCC chairman, are in favor further relaxation of media ownership rules, but they have run into bipartisan opposition in the Congress.

Sinclair has other business interests that may also explain its aggressive support of the Bush administration. The company happens to be a major investor in Jadoo Power Systems, a producer of portable power systems that was recently awarded a military contract from the Pentagon with U.S. Special Operations Command. (Sinclair Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, is one of Jadoo's two major owners.)

Like Clear Channel Communications, which symbolizes deregulation on the radio side, inside the television business Sinclair is known for being cheap, playing hardball with its competitors and suppliers, rampant cost cutting, a conservative tilt, and centralized programming that takes decision-making away from local stations and coverage away from local communities. (Sinclair's even been labeled "the Clear Channel of local news.")

In St. Louis, Sinclair fired the entire 47-person news team at KDNL, making it among the first major-market television stations to broadcast without local news. At Sinclair's Rochester, N.Y., station, it fired the entire news, weather and sports anchor team, and half of the remaining staff. Variety reported that Smith assembled station employees in the company parking lot, climbed onto the hood of a car, read a list of names, and announced that those on the list were fired. (Smith denied the account.) On a smaller but still telling scale, after Sinclair took over WCWB in Pittsburgh, the company ditched the station's three public affairs programs, including "Girl Scouting Today," and replaced them with infomercials.

Typically, when Sinclair guts local news operations, it replaces them with a newscast beamed in from its Maryland studio, which is packaged as a homegrown broadcast. Dubbed "NewsCentral," the maneuver is first and foremost a money-saving enterprise. But an indirect consequence of beaming uniform newscasts across the country is that it has given Sinclair some political clout. "I don't think they anticipated the power they would generate with NewsCentral," says one news industry source. "They created a political animal."

But none of Sinclair's maneuvers, even the "Nightline" stunt, prepared observers for its most recent moves. Sinclair has shown no previous interest in documentaries. "It's never happened before -- ever," says filmmaker Robert Greenwald, who told Salon he offers all his films for Sinclair to broadcast, including "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War." George Butler, director of "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry," as well as Paul Alexander, maker of "Brothers in Arms," a documentary of Kerry's Vietnam experience, have made similar offers, suggesting Sinclair, if it were interested in balance, would show their films to counter the attacks of "Stolen Honor." Sinclair has failed to respond to their offers.

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