FresnoBee.com: Nation: Study: Recession widened racial wealth gap

The enormous wealth gap between white families and blacks and Hispanics grew larger after the most recent recession, a private analysis of government data finds.

White households had a median net worth of greater than $88,000 in 2002, 11 times more than Hispanics and more than 14 times that of blacks, the Pew Hispanic Center said in a study being released Monday. …

Only white homes recouped all their losses between 2001 and 2002. Both Hispanics and blacks lost nearly 27 percent of net worth between 1999 and 2001; the next year Latinos had gained almost all back (26 percent) though blacks were up only about 5 percent.

Does this have more to do with the supposed recession or Bush economic policy? mjh

HoustonChronicle.com – Broadcast company unafraid to push agenda By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, AP

Sinclair owns more TV stations than anyone outside the major networks. And it is not at all shy about using its clout to advance a conservative agenda.

The company, run by the Smith family, finds itself in the middle of a political storm over an anti-John Kerry documentary it plans to air before the election. The company has asked its 62 television stations — many of them in swing states — to pre-empt regular programming to run the documentary, which is critical of Kerry’s anti-war activities after he returned from Vietnam three decades ago.

The impact of the documentary could be large, considering the Sinclair Broadcast Group reaches about a quarter of all U.S. television households from California to Maine. …

The company amassed its stations as federal regulations were relaxed on station ownership [mjh: under Raygun?]. At the same time, it became a generous political donor, giving $172,454 to Republican causes and $6,750 to Democratic campaigns since 1994.

Robert Zelnick, chairman of the journalism department at Boston University, said Sinclair is more conservative than the Fox network.

But he said that while Fox “maintains at least a public claim of objectivity — ‘We report, you decide’ ” — Sinclair is blatant about its conservative bent.

Though they have a far reach, if Sinclair is mostly cable AND well-known to be conservative, they’re probably reaching Bush supporters, not undecided voters. They’ll disgust many with their self-serving manipulation. mjh