More on Sinclair

There have been some great resources on the Sinclair situation that have popped up on the web in the last day or two. I have just spent the last half-hour calling local businesses that advertise on my local Sinclair affiliate, WGGB. I have had some productive conversations, including one with a marketing director at Rock 102 who agreed completely about our situation, and says that the marketing director at WGGB is "sick about it" and that the staff at WGGB has been told they will lose their jobs if they do not air the film. He has not yet decided what to do about it, but he has made it clear to WGGB that he is being innundated with calls and emails, and he is going to decide whether to pull his advertising on Monday. He also called it "a violation of the public trust." Nice guy. :)

Here is a place where you can pull up a list of major advertisers for the Sinclair station in your area, or if you don't live in a Sinclair market, you can call the national advertisers to complain:

http://www.boycottsbg.com/advertisers/default.aspx

Great information about Sinclair and the whole situation are available at

http://www.boycottsbg.com/default.htm
http://freepress.net/sinclair/
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group

If you call, be friendly and take a stance of "finding out if they're aware of the situation." Remember that we're trying to win them over to becoming activists on this issue, a potentially risky professional stance. If they say, as they probably will "are you kidding, how could I not be aware?," tell them you hope they'll decide to support the democratic process and pull your advertising, and that you will make buying choices in the future with local companies' actions on this issue very much in mind. I am planning to get a minivan in the next 6 months, and I made sure to mention that to all the car dealerships.

Also, and none of the sites are telling people to do this, I'd recommend asking for the marketing department. Nobody screens calls to marketing, LOL. These are the people who are actually deciding how to spend their dollars and the ones who are used to spending lots of money to hear public opinion (trust me, they give it to me to do focus groups and surveys!), so they're very much open and oriented to listening when public opinion calls them up on the phone. Offer to provide them with resources to learn more and sympathize with their situation, but remind them that they are an important member of the community and you hope they will take a leadership role in supporting democracy.

I hope you can take the time to make just one or two calls, especially if you are in a Sinclair market. Advertisers need to know that they have a responsibility in this situation.

In other news...

Good debate last night, huh? I love that Kerry opened with the gaping holes in national security like unscreened cargo containers coming into major ports, etc. He had a few good sound bites too.

Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like
Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country.

LMBO.

Knitting content to come. Promise. Go take back our country. I will too. Oh, and if the Sinclair thing doesn't piss you off sufficiently to focus on it, that's cool, check out all the great new resources at Mainstreet Moms Opposing Bush, including a new letter-writing campaign to registered single moms in swing states, called Adopt A Swing State. Give 'em heck.