Minnesota Independent » John Kerry

Infamous broadcaster Sinclair mulls bankruptcy

Paul Schmelzer — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:41:05 +0000

Locally, Sinclair Broadcast Group is known for operating The CW Twin Cities, but the television company is best known for its controversial actions leading up to the 2004 election. In April of that year, Sinclair issued a statement that its ABC affiliates wouldn’t be airing an episode of Nightline that honored U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, characterizing the broadcast as an anti-war statement. In October 2004, the company broadcast Stolen Honor, an anti-John Kerry documentary impugning the then-presidential candidate’s Vietnam war service and post-war peace activism.

But it’s not politics that is hurting the company: it’s the economy. Sinclair indicated in Securities and Exchange Commission filings Friday that it’s considering filing for bankruptcy protection.

Based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Sinclair has courted controversy for years. In 2003, I called out the company for attempting to pass off stories produced at its home office as local news. The next year, I reported on how the company’s Washington bureau chief, Jon Leiberman, was canned for calling the airing of the anti-Kerry flick “biased political propaganda, with clear intentions to sway this election” (in a pot-kettle-black moment, management accused him of letting his “political leanings get in the way”). In 2005, I reported that the company used its news operations, at times, to promote the business interests of its owners.

But what may send the company — the country’s biggest owner of local TV stations — into Chapter 11 bankruptcy is far less sinister: the downturn in ad spending by the automotive industry. According to the Baltimore Business Journal, the company had $1.3 billion in debt at the end of the first quarter, and car advertising — which makes up a quarter of Sinclair’s ad revenue — dipped to 14 percent over the same period. The company also says political ads were virtually nonexistent in 2009.

Sinclair’s shares dropped 21 percent yesterday following Friday’s SEC filing.

Obama’s army of small donors?

Paul Demko — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:00:25 +0000

A major theme of the presidential campaign was the stunning ability of Barack Obama to tap into an unprecedented universe of donors, many of them outside the realm of fat-cat contributors who typically fill campaign coffers on both sides of the aisle. But according to a new study by the Campaign Finance Institute, donors giving less than $200 accounted for just 26 percent of Obama’s total contributions — roughly the same level as George W. Bush in 2004. John McCain received just 21 percent of his contributions from such small donors, while 20 percent of John Kerry’s campaign was funded by donors giving less than $200 in the last presidential election.

“The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama’s finances,” said CFI’s executive director Michael Malbin, in a statement announcing the report’s findings. “The reality of Obama’s fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth.”

This altered perception is driven by a key attribute of the president-elect’s donor base: while an unprecedented number (49 percent) started giving at a level below $200, by the end of the campaign cycle they had often eclipsed that barrier with repeat contributions. Roughly 27 percent of Obama’s donors ultimately gave between $201 and $999, while the remainder (47 percent) contributed at least $1000.

This shouldn’t suggest, however, that the president-elect’s fundraising prowess was any less extraordinary than previously understood. By October 15, the latest reporting period available, roughly 580,000 donors had given at least $200 to the Obama campaign (the level at which a donor’s identity must be disclosed). During the 2004 campaign, by contrast, approximately 475,000 people gave at least $200 to all presidential candidates. In other words, the president-elect successfully tapped 100,000 more donors than Bush, Kerry, Al Sharpton and every single other also-ran four years ago.

Some last minute pre-election numbers — Add more if you like!

Leigh Pomeroy — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 02:48:35 +0000

“Just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.”

Big doin’s in Minnesota’s 1st CD

Leigh Pomeroy — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:54:13 +0000

Some big names will be stumping for Tim Walz and Amy Klobuchar in the 1st Congressional District this coming week.

more insideBarak Obama will be stopping at the Mayo Civic Center Auditorium in Rochester on Monday, Oct. 30, with the event starting at 5:00 pm.

Then on Wednesday, Nov. 1, at noon, Walz will host Sen. John Kerry at Bresnan Arena on the campus of Minnesota State University in Mankato.

What’s in a number?

As has been well publicized, Laura Bush came to the Mayo Civic Center this past Wednesday to lend a hand to incumbent Rep. Gil Gutknecht. According to GOP sources, the crowd was as high as a thousand, with the Albert Lea Tribune estimating 700 and the Associated Press saying “several hundred.” But apparently a Fox News reporter on the scene said the number was less than 300.

Tacked onto the end of the Pioneer Press article about Laura Bush’s $500-a-plate breakfast for Michele Bachmann that morning is this little ditty:

Republicans arriving early for Bush’s speech at the Minneapolis Marriott Southwest hotel encountered about a dozen anti-war demonstrators from a group called Military Families Speak Out.
One of the protesters