I have always been an ardent supporter of free speech, a free press and freedom of religion. These freedoms were so important to our Founding Fathers that they were guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
I agreed very little with the many things that Charlie Kirk said or wrote. Even though I did not agree with Kirk, I fully supported Kirk and his right to express what he believed.
I also know that the murder of Kirk was a terrible crime allegedly committed by an individual who disagreed with Kirk. But I also believe the murder of innocent school children, the murder of elected officials in Minnesota or the senseless murder of any individual is a terrible crime.
I grew up in Salt Lake City and graduated from the University of Utah. For most of my life, I was a viewer of local broadcast news on KUTV-Channel 2. KUTV was owned by George Hatch. Hatch owned several media companies along the Wasatch Front. Hatch was a man of great integrity and that integrity was represented well in all of his media companies.
I stopped watching Channel 2 when they were acquired by Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair Broadcasting requires its properties to express the point of view of the corporation. Since they own so many local broadcast properties across the entire United States, their power exceeds that of Fox News.
Sinclair Broadcasting has called for the boycott of Jimmy Kimmel because he expressed a point of view of Charlie Kirk that they did not agree with. As too many media companies have done recently, ABC kissed the ring of Sinclair Broadcasting and they have removed Jimmy Kimmel from the air.
Since Sinclair Broadcasting has decided to boycott Jimmy Kimmel, I have decided to boycott Sinclair Broadcasting. There is a channel selection control on all TV sets. If a program is being broadcast that you don’t like or agree with, you can easily change the channel or turn the TV off.
Sinclair Broadcasting has taken this right away from us. So I will no longer support Sinclair Broadcasting and their advertisers by not viewing any of their programs. I urge you to do the same.
John Yanni, Midvale
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