McCain and Sinclair days re-revisited

We've already touched on the absurd pre-emption of Nightline tonight by Sinclair Broadcasting, but I wanted to expand on a few points. First, the claim by Sinclair that simply showing the names and photos of fallen US soldiers in Iraq, without commentary of any sort, is in some way a political statement. 722 troops so far have died in Iraq. This is a fact (though Paul Wolfowitz may say otherwise). It only becomes political when Sinclair chooses not to air it because of its unapologetic support for Bush (though in this case "support" looks an awful lot like censorship). For more on this, Atrios has a great post today that details Sincalir's history of media manipulations in favor of Bush. And they're calling Ted Koppel's tribute "politically motivated"? I'd laugh if I didn't have that sick feeling in my gut. Must've had some bad Rove for lunch.

I also wanted to point to Sen. John McCain, whose name keeps popping up in every recent campaign issue. Today, he sent Sinclair Broadcasting a letter protesting their decision to pre-empt the tribute. "It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves," McCain writes. This coming days after calling for a senate floor truce on attacking either candidate's military service. He defended Kerry's war record when it was being absurdly attacked. My point is, McCain seems like a bit of a tortured soul; i.e. a Republican with a conscience. How much more of this campaign nonsense can McCain take? Especially in the climate of a war, where Republicans continue to politicize it for a campaign? Remember, when Bush ran in 2000, Drinky and Karl Rove were just as bad or worse in attacking McCain (then a Republican presidential candidate opposite Bush) as they are now with Kerry. McCain's tried his best in the media spotlight to forget and make friends - but come on now Johnny, lead the way......there's plenty of room over here on the left.