Sinclair Broadcast Group and the Fog

Remember Sinclair Broadcast Group? They wouldn't let their ABC affiliates stations run NightLine when the program showed names and photos of troops killed in Iraq. Now they're requiring 62 of their television stations to broadcast an anti-Kerry documentary, "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," which they say is news and not campaign propaganda. What is the film about? The Guardian UK:

Carlton Sherwood, a Vietnam veteran and former journalist who made the film, said Monday that he felt the media had not explored the period of Kerry's life after his return from Vietnam, including when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee alleging atrocities in Vietnam.

"For 33 years, we've been saying that how Kerry portrayed us was utterly false. It was purgatory of the worst kind. It was slander," Sherwood said. "But no one wanted to talk about it. Everybody ran for cover."

If soldiers in Vietnam were not involved in atrocities, I can imagine how they might think none were committed, or at least might prefer to think so. However there clearly were atrocities and incidents of abuse, as documented by war historians such as Richard Moser. The most clearly visible and well-documented case of atrocities in Vietnam was the My Lai massacre, but Moser suggests there were many other cases. A documentary that suggests Kerry was lying when he said he had heard of atrocities committed would be pretty baseless, but if you'd rather deny or forget, it would be troubling. And today we have a group of conservatives who for whatever reason want to glorify war, and in so doing refuse to acknowledge that ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances of conflict are capable not only of remarkable acts of heroism, but also remarkable acts of violence. That was supposed to be one of the lessons of Vietnam as we confronted our "heart of darkness," but that lesson seems all but lost today. Kerry himself seems to distance himself from the remarks he made then, instead trying to convince voters that he has the same commitment to war as Bush. We're in a bit of a fog here – complex conflicts, more than any of us can quite comprehend. Where will we find clear thinking? Meanwhile, however, if you think Sinclair Broadcast Group is breaking the public trust that accompanies a license to the airwaves, you can let people know what you're thinking.