[Update: Sinclair's Last Chance via

Josh Marshall's right, Sinclair is beginning to crack. But, as he notes, their new plan to force a "news show" that juxtaposes parts of "Stolen Honor" with the shameful lib'ral media's behavior in this matter just ain't gonna cut it. Luckily, Sinclair has a way out.

I was on a conference call this morning with Deborah Rappaport, a California-based philanthropist who is offering Sinclair quite the face-saver. She's bought rights to the excellent, accurate and extremely well-reviewed documentary Going Upriver, which follows John Kerry through his war heroism and anti-war activism, and is offering an edited version (42 minutes long, exactly the timespan of Sinclair's proposed program) for broadcast before the election. Not only is she offering it, she's willing to pay $1 million dollar sabove the ad revenue the time slot would normally generate and cover all the fines and fees incurred from preempting stations. So long as Sinclair shows the documentary before the election, in a time slot with comparable viewership to Stolen Honor's, and with a similar amount of advance work (publicizing it, running ads, etc), the offer is valid. This would allow them to show both sides of the controversy and demonstrate the balance they feel is lacking from other media outlets. The offer was delivered this morning and Sinclair has been asked to respond within 24 hours. This is as good as it's gonna get for them, and it's the final test of whether or not they're a business who simply wants to show both side or an arm of BC04 that's wasting shareholder dollars.

For more on "Going Upriver", check out Kevin Drum's review here.

[Update ll: Despite the assertions made in "Stolen Honors," NBC's David Shuster reports that "dozens" of former Vietnam War POW's say that John Kerry's name was never even mentioned once by their Vietnamese captors