Well, here is the media story of the day. You will note that this show will be BANNED in several cities. What is the offending content? A breast? Four letter words? Mature content? Sexual situations? Nope. It's the names and faces of American heroes who died in the service of their country. You may not watch this for purely political purposes.

A tribute to the fallen has been scheduled and some of you out there will not be allowed to see it. You see to Bushco and its supporters fallen soldiers are not heroes they are political garbage to be brushed under the rug or left curbside with the rest of the trash.  

Sinclair Broadcasting the company that will not allow it's ABC affiliates to air this show donated the maximum sum to the campaign to re-elect Bush and Cheney. So, they don't want the heroes to be celebrated...they would prefer to hide the bodies. Unfortunately for Sinclair, dead American soldiers are all too easy to find. Unlike Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

So, it's ok to celebrate the death of Pat Tillman...a hero...an example to us all...but the others shall remain nameless and faceless to all but the families that grieve their lost loved ones. Sinclair Broadcasting says you will not honor these heroes.

So, plain and simple...no spin...a small group of Republicans that have donated to Bush/Cheney 2004 will tell you, "You may not watch Ted Koppel." They made up your mind for you.

Read it and weep:

April 29, 2004, 11:04PM

Nightline's roll call of Iraq war dead tribute or politics?

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Nightline calls tonight's program a simple tribute. Others call it anti-war propaganda. And one group of television stations is pre-empting it.

During the ABC News broadcast (10:35 p.m., Channel 13), anchor Ted Koppel will read aloud the name of an American service man or woman killed in the Iraq war while a corresponding photo will appear on the screen along with that person's name, military branch, rank and age.

Expanded by 10 minutes from its usual half-hour format, Nightline will include more than 500 killed in action in Iraq since March 19, 2003, as well as 200-plus non-combat deaths.

"These people have paid the ultimate price in our name," said the show's executive producer, Leroy Sievers, "and it's important to remember them, whether you think the price is worth it or not."

With the war much in dispute during a highly charged presidential election year, some critics see the show as a political statement.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, a Maryland-based media company whose holdings include 62 TV stations, said Thursday that it would pre-empt Nightline on its eight ABC affiliates, including stations in Columbus, Ohio, St. Louis, Mo., and Tallahassee, Fla.

The company called the broadcast a political statement "disguised as news content," pointing to the producers' omission of "the names of thousands of private citizens killed in terrorist attacks" since Sept. 11, 2001.

Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes called the Nightline plan "a cheap, content-free stunt designed to tug at our heartstrings and bag a big number on the second night of the May ratings race."

In its own statement, ABC said its news division had reported "hundreds of stories on 9/11" while noting that, on the first anniversary of that tragedy, it aired the victims' names.

The Nightline broadcast "simply seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country," ABC said.

Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, said he believed it is intellectually dishonest to deny the partisan nature of the broadcast.

"There's only one goal in mind," he said. "It's to turn public opinion against the war."

Political pundit Fred Barnes, appearing on the Fox News Channel, agreed. "Koppel is drawing from a Vietnam analogy," Barnes said.

Barnes was referring to a Vietnam War-era issue of Life magazine, which Nightline has cited as the broadcast's inspiration.

Like many other readers in June 1969, Sievers said he was stirred by an 11-page spread titled "One Week's Dead" consisting of photographs of the more than 200 servicemen killed in the Vietnam War in a seven-day period.

Bozell said Nightline will illustrate the tragedy of war but without mention of the accomplishments of its fallen heroes.

"Nightline," he said, should "tell you what they're dying for. If it doesn't do that, it's nothing but anti-war propaganda."

But even to approach the war as a pro-or-con matter is to oversimplify it, said Bob Steele, director of the ethics program for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

"The issue of war is not unlike the issue of abortion, immigration or capital punishment: There are multiple sides to it," Steele said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer contributed to this story.