Plan to air Kerry film draws fire

PORTLAND – Several businesses have pulled advertising from WGME-TV in response to the station’s plan to televise a critical documentary about John Kerry’s anti-Vietnam War activities.

The Lee Auto Malls, and the law offices of Joe Bornstein withdrew their advertising indefinitely.

Hannaford supermarkets also decided to withdraw advertising, but it reversed its position on Friday.

“We recognize that WGME has been placed in an untenable position,” spokeswoman Caren Epstein said in a statement. “It was never our intention to politicize this issue even more by our action.”

Alan Cartwright, WGME’s general manager, did not return a message left at his office on Friday. Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., based outside Baltimore, has asked its 62 television stations to pre-empt regular programming to run the documentary.

“I’m torn. I think the press should be able to print and air what they want, but doing this just before an election, without advertising and without a rebuttal, is not fair,” said Adam Lee, president of Lee Auto Malls.

Bornstein, who has offices in Portland and Bangor, said that having his ads on WGME during this controversy made him “uncomfortable.”

“This is really an issue of fairness in broadcasting and Maine has been dragged into it,” said Bornstein.

The film chronicles Kerry’s 1971 testimony before Congress and links him to activist and actress Jane Fonda. It includes interviews with Vietnam prisoners of war and their wives who claim Kerry’s testimony demeaned them and led their captors to hold them longer.

Epstein said she did not know how much Hannaford spends on advertising with WGME. Lee said he did a “fair amount” of advertising with the station.

WGME – Channel 13 – plans to air “Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal” on Oct. 23.

Democratic members of Congress and Democratic Party officials protested after Sinclair announced this week its plans to air the documentary. The Federal Communications Commission said it wouldn’t intervene to prevent the film from airing.

In Maine, angry viewers flooded WGME with calls and e-mails in protest of the film’s airing.