By Matt Hackworth, KCUR
St. Louis – ABC television affiliates in St. Louis and seven other cities are not broadcasting Friday's Nightline program.
Channel 30's parent company Sinclair Broadcasting says host Ted Koppel's plans to read the names of several hundred U.S. troops who've died in Iraq is antiwar propaganda.
But University of Missouri-Columbia journalism professor Rod Gelatt says viewers should make that decision themselves.
"To me, I would consider this a very narrow point of view," Gelatt said. "And I think that it also says in effect We don't trust our viewers to make their own judgment as to the worthwhileness of this.'"
Channel 30 general manager Tom Tipton would not comment. But he said in a recorded telephone statement that "political statements should not be disguised as news content."