Is this It?

Is this it? Is this the October Surprise Karl Rove has been promising?
The arch-conservative and Bush-backer owner of the Sinclair Broadcasting Group has apparently ordered its more than sixty TV stations to air an anti-Kerry "documentary" in the tradition of the Swift Boat Liars commercials, a few days before the election.

This is unprecedented in American television history. According to law, the airwaves that carry TV signals belong to the public, and the government, acting on the people's behalf, gives the rights to use these airways to commercial concerns that provide a service that benefits the public. For many years, the Fairness Doctrine decreed, among other things, that major political candidates be given "equal time." But the Fairness Doctrine is defunct (right wing talk radio wouldn't be possible otherwise) though there are other rules, and network news operations tend to be more and more careful about being even-handed in coverage as Election Day approaches.

As Aaron Brown or someone on his CNN program put it, it is as if CBS decided to air "Fahrenheit 9-11" the week before the election. The Sinclair move is causing consternation and furious activity. The Democratic Party is going to the Federal Elections Comission, claiming this amounts to giving the Bush campaign an extended campaign commercial for free. Various Kerry supporters are quickly organizing protest actions, ranging from phone calls and mail to Sinclair, its local stations and their advertisers, to investigating which stations have their license renewals coming up, so their licenses can be challenged.

Many of Sinclair's stations are in battleground states, including Florida (Tampa, Tallahassee), Pennsylvania (two stations in Pittsburgh), Ohio (Dayton and two stations in Columbus), Missouri, Wisconsin and Iowa.

The Sinclair move, as boldly anti-democratic as it is, puts some free speech advocates in a painful position. While some state that Sinclair has the legal right to do this, others are not so sure they do. But we believe the vulnerable point is at the local station level, and that pressure on individual stations, either directly or through advertisers, could inspire some defiance and defection, and then the whole thing might unravel.

There is also the risk that protests could call more attention to the program, but that is a risk that has to be taken, because the content is so inflammatory: several Vietnam veterans and former POWs claim that Kerry's antiwar activity was used against them while they were prisoners, a claim denied by other Vietnam vets and former POWs not interviewed in this "documentary." Besides lies, it uses the same sort of distortions featured in the Swift Boat ads.

Whether or not this happens, or has much effect on an issue that may have had all the impact it is going to, this is exactly the kind of campaign we can expect the Bushies to wage, from the end of the third debate until election day: Lies and distortions meant to have powerful emotional effects. The rabid right is without ethics or morals of any kind in politics. It's all about power. The most pitiful part of it is that many of the people who support these tactics, and even many who dream them up and implement them, are being exploited with the same cynicism, and they will be left behind with the rest of the masses. The Bushes of the world will stay rich and privileged, with their sense of entitlement intact. They have no more respect for the people serving them than they have for the poor that their servants mock. Nor will their minions reap the big rewards. They will be kept around as long as their masters need them and they function well. But there will always be hungry new servants who will work for less. Eventually they will be eaten alive by their more ambitious colleagues, who in turn will fall.