HARRISBURG, PA: Although a firestorm of controversy and advertiser boycott prevented it from being shown in its entirety on Sinclair Broadcast Group affiliates last week, Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal, has found a home in other, smaller media outlets.
Armstrong, a cable systems company that reaches households in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and small parts of West Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland, will air the 42-minute film on its stations beginning today.
Dave Wittmann, director of cable marketing for Armstrong, said a political action committee (PAC) called Public Truth had purchased leased accessed time on Armstrong's cable systems. "The cable operator can't exert any control over those programs," he added.
In addition to broadcasting on cable stations, the film is also being shown at independent movie houses in swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as on college campuses, said Carlton Sherwood, the documentary's producer and filmmaker. The film is now also available for download, free of charge on its website: www.stolenhonor.com. "It's really interesting how this is working out," Sherwood said. "It's not being shown secretly."
The controversy surrounding the documentary and Sinclair's original decision to air it has provided better PR than could be have been done conventionally, said Charlie Gerow, president of Harrisburg, PA-based Quantum Communications, the AOR for the documentary and Sherwood's production company, Red, White and Blue Productions.
"The furor that the Kerry campaign kicked up helped marketing efforts more than we could have ever hoped," he added. "The more they squawked, the more we sold." To date, the company has sold more than 50,000 copies of Stolen Honor.
At the height of the controversy surrounding the documentary, Gerow said, Quantum's seven-member staff was fielding more than 200 phone calls a day, from more than 20 different countries. "It was a tremendous PR challenge," he said. "It has been a great experience."
