Simple Point

For everyone who agrees with Sinclair over their decision to not broadcast Nightline tonight, pay attention to this…

In an interview ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday, Koppel said he expected the show to be controversial – “but not this controversial.”
He denied complaints that the show is “anti-war.”
“It is a way of saying…let me explain it this way, Charlie [Gibson]. I was born and grew up in England. I was a small child in London during the Second World War. We used to spend our nights during bombing raids in an air-raid shelter in the back. There was rationing. There were blackouts. There was an awareness of the war, which I think is somehow a little bit lacking in the United States at this time.

(emphasis mine)
To the right, what Nightline is going to do is tantamount to “undermining the war effort.” To the left it’s simply “honoring the dead.” I know that some of us on the left will be happy of what Nightline is doing because maybe it will influence people. But that’s not the point.
Let’s just look at the facts. The soldiers who have died did so while serving their country. What is wrong with honoring them by reading their names over the air? Has anyone asked the families of the dead what they think? You can’t escape it, death is part of this war. If you can’t deal with that, then don’t support the war in Iraq.
UPDATE: John McCain weighs in on Sinclair’s decision.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.’s plan to preempt tonight’s broadcast of ABC News’ “Nightline” show, on which Ted Koppel is to read the names of all U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, was criticized by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain as “unpatriotic.”
“Every American has a responsibility to understand fully the terrible costs of war and the extraordinary sacrifices it requires of those brave men and women who volunteer to defend the rest of us,” McCain, an Arizona Republican, said in a letter to Sinclair Chief Executive Officer David Smith.

(once again, emphasis mine)
I agree. That’s my point, and I’m stickin’ to it.