Sinclair gets FEC pass on 'Stolen Honor'

BALTIMORE, July 28 (UPI) -- The Federal Elections Commission says Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. didn't break any laws last fall when it aired a negative program on Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

"Stolen Honor," broadcast last October by Baltimore-based Sinclair during Kerry's presidential contest against President Bush, drew a FEC complaint from the Democratic National Committee.

The show was broadcast as part of a "news special," Sinclair had said.

But the FEC unanimously agreed that no campaign finance laws were broken by the broadcast and that it was protected by the "press exemption," Sinclair said Thursday.