Sinclair update: Fox29?

It seems that Sinclair is making what it probably considers to be a compromise. It won't show the propaganda film that bashes John Kerry in its entirety. Instead, it appears that Sinclair will "balance" a good portion of the material in that film with some additional information about the pressure from the government and average citizenry that has been brought to bear against Sinclair in recent weeks. For us Buffalonians, what's most striking about yesterday's Sinclair press release, is this:

While the news special will discuss the allegations surrounding Senator John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities in the early 1970s raised by a number of former POWs in "Stolen Honor," it will do so in the context of the broader discussion outlined above. The program will be hosted by Jeff Barnd, the Emmy award winning co-anchor of Fox 45's 10:00 News which airs on WBFF-TV, Sinclair's flagship station in Baltimore, Maryland. Joe DeFeo, Sinclair's Vice President of News commented that, "As with all news programming produced by Sinclair's News Central, A POW Story is being produced with the highest journalistic standards and integrity. We have not ceded, and will not in the future cede, control of our news reporting to any outside organization or political group. We are endeavoring, as we do with all of our news coverage, to present both sides of the issues covered in an equal and impartial manner."

Setting aside for a moment the fact that there is nothing about Sinclair's News Central that's impartial, let's then scroll down to find that this "news" program will air on Friday in Buffalo on WUTV FOX 29. Fox 29 doesn't have a news program. Fox 29 doesn't broadcast News Central. Fox 29 doesn't have a news division. To my knowledge, with the exception of airing Fox News Network programming such as the State of the Union or other public-interest items, Fox 29 has never had a news program on its air. Ever. Instead, it's Sinclair's other Buffalo property, WNYO WB49 that airs a nightly 10pm news broadcast, featuring Sinclair's absymal News Central. So, wouldn't WB49 be a natural choice to air this "news" special? Why Fox29? Actually, WB49's local news coverage is quite excellent, from what I've seen. It's important to separate the local production from "News Central." WB49 covers local stories almost exclusively for the first 1/2 hour of the broadcast before moving on to Sinclair's national feed. The choice of local stories is head & shoulders above the other local stations for local content. How many times have you turned on the local news on 2, 4 or 7 only to find Iraq or some other national or international story as "local" story #1? WB49's local production delved last night into some important local issues: surveillance cameras on the East Side, for instance. I'm very doubtful that the special will be either fair or impartial, and I think Sinclair will really have to live up to that claim in a substantial way lest it forever be known as an out-and-out GOP propaganda outlet.