US regulator 'unable' to stop anti-Kerry show

The US Federal Communications Commission cannot stop the broadcast of a show critical of Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry's anti-war comments after returning from Vietnam, the agency's head said.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. plans to air the Stolen Honour documentary which accuses Mr Kerry of betraying fellow veterans of the Vietnam War by testifying to Congress in 1971 about atrocities he said were committed by US forces in that conflict.

"Don't look to us to block the airing of the programme," FCC chairman Michael Powell told reporters.

"There is no rule that I'm aware of that would allow the commission, nor would it be prudent, to prevent the airing of programming."

One former prisoner of war interviewed for the program said Mr Kerry's remarks were used by the Vietnamese to undermine their morale, according to his video account on the website for the documentary.

Democrats say the documentary is a political statement masquerading as news and have demanded the FCC and the Federal Election Commission determine whether its broadcast would violate any regulations.

"The American public, which owns the airwaves that Sinclair would use for its partisan political purposes, expects the FCC to uphold the basic principle of fairness which is at the root of our democracy," said a letter to Mr Powell from 85 House of Representatives' Democrats sent this week.

Sinclair, based in Baltimore, Maryland, with 62 stations in 39 markets that include battleground states like Ohio and Florida, said the format of its "special news event" on prisoners of war in Vietnam has not been finalised.

Sinclair owns 20 Fox affiliates, 19 WB stations, eight ABC affiliates, four NBC stations, three CBS stations, and two independent channels that reach about 24 per cent of television households, according to its website.

The company in April refused to air on its ABC stations the "Nightline" programme that broadcast the names and photographs of the American soldiers who had been killed in Iraq.

The company's owners and executives have given overwhelming to Republicans in the last 11 years, about $309,000 versus about $72,000 to Democrats and its political action committees, according to campaign contribution tracker PoloticalMoneyLine.

Mr Powell said even if the FCC did try to take action, it would likely violate free speech rights in the US Constitution.

"I don't know about you but I haven't seen it, I don't know who has seen it, I don't know whether there's anything implicated in FCC policy at all," said Mr Powell, a Republican first appointed to the independent agency by President Bill Clinton and selected as chairman by President George W. Bush.

Sinclair's website invites people to urge Mr Kerry to accept its invitation to participate in the programme, adding that characterisations about its content are based on ill-informed sources.

The documentary backers last month said on their website that they had joined forces with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that launched a high-profile advertising campaign this summer attacking Mr Kerry's service in Vietnam and his testimony to Congress.

Other veterans, including one who commanded a boat alongside Mr Kerry during the Vietnam war, have defended him.