from today's Washington Post: I about swallowed my gum....

Sinclair Chief Denies Political Agenda

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 26, 2004; Page E01

It's as if Bill Gates were to say he doesn't spend much time on the computer, or that Daniel Snyder actually prefers bridge to football. The head of the nation's largest collection of television stations insists that he rarely watches the shows his stations air, including parts of the anti-John Kerry documentary that brought so much controversy to his doorstep over the past two weeks.

In a rare, wide-ranging and sometimes feisty and combative interview on Friday, David D. Smith, chief executive of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., said he has been mischaracterized as a Republican activist who has attempted to use his family-controlled company to support GOP causes. He denied trying to sway the presidential election by requiring his stations to air a special on Friday that included several minutes of "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," which features former Vietnam POWs saying their captors used Kerry's postwar testimony before Congress against them.

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