Minnesota Independent: News. Politics. Media. » 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.

John Kerry hits up his ‘grass e-roots’ for funds to help Franken

Chris Steller — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:52:05 +0000

Photo: WDCpix

U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), using what former Sen. Norm Coleman calls “grass e-roots,” has sent out an e-mail appeal for donations to Al Franken’s legal effort to take his place in Coleman’s former Senate seat.

Kerry’s stated purpose is to help Democrats gain a “60th vote that can break filibusters and end the obstructionism of the Republican Party.” But he could also be nursing a grudge against a Coleman legal team that includes Ben Ginsberg, who advised the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign against the Democratic Party 2004 standard-bearer.

The appeal itself is not a surprise, coming from a Democrat whose PAC was helping Franken back in the pre-Election Day era of the Coleman-Franken bruiser. But the timing — during a lull as both sides await a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling — suggests Franken needs more help than the $95,000 Coleman owes him to pay his legal bills and may be readying for Coleman to carry the fight to the federal courts.

Here’s the text of Kerry’s e-mail, as posted by an unsympathetic recipient at a gun-rights message board:

Enough is enough. Minnesota needs two Senators. And Republicans need to accept the fact that we will have 60 Democratic Senators.

We’re almost there.

Still, the national Republican party has sunk hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars into endless legal wrangling, thinking that it’s money well-spent if it just blocks seating another Democratic Senator who can help pass President Obama’s agenda.

Can you please help Al Franken fight back against the money of the Republican Party and win his legal fight? Click on this link to help:

Support the Franken Recount Fund!

The legal bills are constantly mounting, but the Republican Party fights on. They know what we can do to strengthen our country with another Democratic vote, the 60th vote that can break filibusters and end the obstructionism of the Republican Party. Al Franken won, but every day the Republican Party delays his certification is a day they count as a victory.

Let’s give Al the resources he needs to put an end to this fight and start fighting the battles that really matter, the battles that will improve our country and start meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

Please make a contribution to Al’s legal fund to give him the resources he needs to fight:

Support the Franken Recount Fund!

Thank you so much for your help. The fights for health care reform and a new energy future are approaching a crucial stage, and I’ll be in touch to keep you updated on what’s happening and other ways you can fight for a better future.

Sincerely,
John Kerry

The Franken Recount Fund is “a joint fundraising committee authorized by Al Franken for Senate and the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party,” according to Franken’s campaign Web site — so not the kind of national-party fund that the Federal Election Commission okayed in March.

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