Champaign residents bombarded local television station WICD channel 15 with phone calls after its affiliate, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, ordered it to air a documentary about John Kerry’s war record several days before the election, said Gary Hackler, the station’s manager.

Hackler said the station has received a mixed response to the announcement that the station will broadcast the documentary, titled “Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal.” Sinclair is also requiring that the stations broadcast a discussion of the documentary after it is aired.

“We’ve gotten a lot of phone calls, both pro and con,” Hackler said. “We’re just jotting down their opinions.”

Hackler said that Sinclair told the station to air the program sometime next week.

Paul Riismandel, who hosts a radio program about the media on WEFT, said Sinclair is having all of its stations throughout the country air the program, which, according to Riismandel, attacks Kerry’s actions during and after the Vietnam War. Riismandel is also a member of the Independent Media Center (IMC) in Champaign, an organization that condemns Sinclair’s broadcast of the documentary.

Hackler said WICD was told to “clear time for the program,” and had no choice to air the special.

Local groups, including the IMC, have discussed boycotting the station and its advertisers, but no efforts have been fully organized, Riismandel said.

Several national groups started boycotts shortly after news of the documentary was released, he said.

The News-Gazette, which advertises with WICD, received a phone call asking them to pull advertising and participate in the boycotts, said Heather Smith, the newspaper’s marketing director. Some protesters have suggested they would boycott organizations that advertise on WICD.

In spite of the complaint, she said, they have no plans to make any changes in their advertising.

Riismandel said concerned students were calling both Sinclair and the local station to complain. He added that the Federal Communications Commission is obligated to investigate any complaints filed against a station through its Web site, www.FCC.gov.

Sinclair said in a recorded statement that the discussion section of the broadcast has not yet been filmed, and Kerry has been invited to participate. They called characterizations about it “premature and part of a political agenda.”

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said in a statement that they have filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission to protest what they called an “illegal corporate contribution to the Bush campaign.”

According to the DNC statement, Sinclair has contributed thousands of dollars to Republican causes. Earlier this year, the company refused to allow its stations to air a “Nightline” special listing the names of soldiers that died in Iraq.

Journalism professor Steven Helle said Sinclair’s actions were legal and protected by first amendment rights.

“Under campaign finance laws, media companies are not considered to be donating to a campaign if their speech helps or hurts a given candidate,” Helle said. “It would be no different if a liberal network aired Fahrenheit 9/11.”

Helle said that the problem went beyond Sinclair.

“The real problem here are the FCC rules that allow such concentration of control that one owner can have 62 stations to begin with,” he said.

Hackler said that in the past, Sinclair has told the station to make time in their local newscasts for special stories, but never to clear a primetime slot for a documentary.

According to Riismandel, Sinclair has taken heat locally before. A documentary about FM radio was sent to NBC affiliates, but Sinclair refused to air it on WICD, he said. Local viewers called in asking to see it, but were told there was not enough notice.

“Now they want to turn around and show this one on Kerry,” Riismandel said. “… Sinclair is not a very good corporate citizen.”