Text 3812, 171 rader
Skriven 2004-10-19 12:46:18 av Alan Hess
Ärende: express an honest opinion,
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get fired.
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/lifestyle/bal-te.to.sinclair19oct19,1,758
1809.story?coll=bal-pe-today

Election 2004: The media

Sinclair fires D.C. chief who spoke out
Political correspondent criticized network's plan to air anti-Kerry program


By David Folkenflik
Sun Staff

October 19, 2004

Sinclair Broadcast Group fired its Washington bureau chief yesterday after the
reporter criticized plans for an hourlong program on 60 stations that will
include incendiary charges against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

"I just think it's a shame that a journalist gets fired for telling the truth,"
said Jon Leiberman, who had been the Maryland-based media firm's chief
political correspondent for more than a year.

In his initial remarks, published yesterday by The Sun, Leiberman called the
Sinclair show "biased political propaganda, with clear intentions to sway this
election."

In the interview, Leiberman condemned the unprecedented dedication of an hour
by Sinclair to charges that Kerry's anti-war activism led to the renewed
torture of U.S. prisoners of war in Vietnam. He said the decision to run the
program reflected the conservative ideological bent of Sinclair executives
intent on influencing voters as the Nov. 2 election nears.

"Everyone is entitled to their personal opinion, including Jon Leiberman," said
Mark Hyman, Sinclair's vice president for corporate relations. "We're
disappointed that Jon's political views caused him to violate policy and speak
to the press about company business."

'Stolen Honor'

The Sinclair program, as yet untitled, draws from the documentary Stolen Honor:
Wounds That Never Heal, which includes allegations by some U.S. prisoners of
war that Kerry's anti-war testimony before Congress in 1971 inspired their
North Vietnamese captors to torture them further. Stolen Honor was produced by
Carlton Sherwood, a prize-winning journalist with close ties to Bush
administration officials.

"Viewers can judge Leiberman's opinion versus the reality when the finished
product is aired," Hyman said, calling Leiberman a "disgruntled employee."

Later yesterday evening, Hyman issued an additional statement: "Jon Leiberman
is no longer an employee of the company. We do not comment on personnel
matters."

The show is planned for broadcast locally at 8 p.m. Friday on WBFF, Sinclair's
Baltimore-based flagship. Sinclair owns or controls 62 television stations in
39 markets, reaching about 24 percent of the nation's population. Hyman said
all but two of the stations - those that maintain only business arrangements
with Sinclair - will air the show.

The Sun first interviewed Leiberman on Sunday after he told Joseph DeFeo,
Sinclair's vice president for news, that he would not participate in preparing
the program and that he objected to it being labeled news rather than
commentary. Leiberman raised his objections at a mandatory meeting for all
Sinclair corporate news staffers to help prepare the piece.

Leiberman was summoned yesterday afternoon to the company's Hunt Valley
headquarters and fired by DeFeo for his remarks, he said last night. Leiberman
said he was told that he was being fired for criticizing the company publicly
and for revealing "proprietary information" by describing the Sunday meeting of
the news staff. He was then escorted from the building.

DeFeo did not return telephone messages seeking comment.

Yesterday, Leiberman, 29, disputed Hyman's contention that political beliefs
informed his criticisms of Sinclair. Leiberman said he is a registered Democrat
but that he voted for George W. Bush, a Republican, in 2000. A search of
federal and state databases found no political contributions by Leiberman.

"I have never, ever let politics frame the way I cover news," Leiberman said.
"The reason I spoke out is because Sinclair Broadcast Group is not holding up
the public trust."

'Ethical journalism'

Geneva Overholser, a former editor of The Des Moines Register and ombudsman of
The Washington Post, praised Leiberman yesterday for what she termed his
courage.

"I have a pantheon of heroes, and he's now among them," Overholser said. "He
was willing to stand up and say what the news department has to do is stand for
fairness and balance."

Lisa Modarelli, now a freelance journalist, was hired in June 2003 as a
producer for Sinclair's nascent Washington bureau. She was its first employee
and Leiberman its first chief. She said she never had any glimmer of
Leiberman's political beliefs but saw that he was discouraged by the political
tone coming from his bosses in Baltimore County.

"He was giving up, agreeing to do their stories and wasn't doing the kind of
investigative reporting that he went there to do," Modarelli said yesterday.
"The amount of spin they wanted to put in it really broke him down over time."

She said she left in August 2004 for two reasons. The pay was low compared with
that of other news operations in Washington. But she also was frustrated by the
fallout from another controversy that sparked national attention. In late
spring, Sinclair blocked an edition of Nightline from its seven ABC stations
because, executives said, Ted Koppel's plan to read the names of U.S. soldiers
killed in Iraq amounted to an anti-war statement. (Koppel denounced that
contention.)

"Our sources didn't trust us anymore, even though we didn't make that
decision," Modarelli said. "They didn't want to work with us anymore because
whatever we did, the story would turn out biased."

She added, "For me, it's just about ethical journalism."

Leiberman said the company had largely treated him well - until yesterday.

"I am not a disgruntled employee. I have worked hard for Sinclair for more than
four years," he said. "I love what I do, but I love doing news. ... And I just
felt like nobody was listening."

Leiberman, a Baltimore native, has been promoted several times during his
tenure at Sinclair. He returned to Baltimore in 2000 to become an investigative
reporter at Sinclair's WBFF-TV after stints at local stations in Topeka, Kan.,
and Albuquerque, N.M. His duties at WBFF were expanded to include some
supervisory duties for the station's investigative unit in 2002. Last year, he
was promoted again, to head up the four-person Washington newsroom. He was sent
by Sinclair to file stories from Iraq and Cuba, and also covered the two major
political conventions this summer.

He said he has been upset by the role that Hyman, who is also the company's
conservative editorialist, plays in making news judgments. Hyman pushed for
Sinclair to create the program based on Sherwood's anti-Kerry documentary.

"This is nothing personal," Leiberman said yesterday afternoon. "This company
has been good to me. Simply as a journalist, I think it's wrong for a
commentator to have his hand in news - and other nonjournalists to have their
hands in news."

Although he said he is passing along some ideas for the show, Hyman said his
involvement in the Sinclair special has ebbed.

"This is a definite news event," Hyman said yesterday. "This has received
significant media scrutiny as well as from outside groups."

The plans for the Sinclair program stirred a national firestorm earlier this
month, with Democrats filing formal complaints with the Federal Election
Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and Sinclair itself.

The chairman of the FCC, Michael K. Powell, has dismissed calls that the panel
investigate the program before it airs. The FEC is not expected to take action
before the election on the contention of the Democratic Party that the show
constitutes an illegal "in-kind" corporate campaign donation.

Sinclair has invited Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, to appear on the show to
respond to the allegations raised by the prisoners of war, but his campaign
aides have rejected the offer as disingenuous.

Some liberal groups said they intend to challenge future efforts by Sinclair to
renew broadcast licenses at its stations. Sinclair has benefited in recent
years from deregulation, in which restrictions on the acquisition of stations
by large media companies have diminished.

Copyright + 2004, The Baltimore Sun

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