Sinclair Broadcast Group’s troubles continued to mount, even as it’s stock precipitously dropped again on Tuesday. On a day when the company sought to make it appear to be conceding ground to critics of its decision to air an anti-Kerry propaganda film on its 62 stations this week, things went from bad to worse.

Not only are critics not buying the company’s announced make-over of the controversial program, but a group of stockholders is suing, charging that company executives engaged in partisanship and insider trading against the interests of shareholders.

The company’s difficulties are epitomized by a The New York Times report in Wednesday’s edition that among other things notes that “The company, already suffering from a sluggish advertising climate, has had its stock price fall by almost 17 percent and its market capitalization drop by $140 million in the last week and a half. The Times also reports that “The Burger King Company announced that it would pull all its commercials from Sinclair stations all day on the date the program is broadcast. “Burger King wants to maintain neutrality during this election,” said Eric Anderson, a spokesman.

Meanwhile, thanks to scrutiny the company has brought on itself, investors have discovered that several top Sinclair executives and a member of the board unloaded almost all of their stock just before the “Stolen Honor” flap caused the company’ stock to tank. William S. Lerach, an attorney for the stock holders told reporters that he is not alleging that the company knew that running “Stolen Honor” would ruin the company — the company’s value was steeply declining anyway. However, these top insiders were able to save themselves millions of dollars, and make the many dubious businesses involving “Stolen Honor,” while holding almost no stake in the company itself.

In an apparent effort to appease advertisers and investors, the company announced on Tuesday that it would not air the anti-Kerry film “in its entirety,” but that the hour-long program would include a panel discussion. Of course, that is what was planned all along, as the company itself says in its press release. It appears what the company has done is to repackage the program and give it a title — but it still includes the anti-Kerry film as the core of the program. The company has also decided not to air the program on about 20 stations, in cities where Sinclair owns more than one station in a market. That leaves 40 stations that plan to air the anti-Kerry propaganda program. The program will also now air on only one date and time: Friday, October 22, 2004 at 8:00 P.M. Eastern time, instead of at variouis times on different stations across the week.

While some publications have published stories that Sinclair has reversed itself and is not actually airing “Stolen Honor,” others see through the fog.

“Sinclair is packaging ‘Stolen Honor’ as news and directing its stations to run a program about it, uninterrupted, in prime time Friday night,” the Columbia Journalism Review editorialized on Tuesday. “In a last-minute maneuver, the company announced today that the repackaged program would bear the title “A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media.” The editorial concludes however the program is “not news; it’s propaganda, which no amount of re-packaging will effectively hide.”

Nick Davis who runs the Boycott Sinclair Broadcast Group web site writes, “Folks, we’re close but we’re not there yet. The move to a new Friday “documentary” is not nearly enough to let us yield, not yet. We have now nearly 100 advertiser pullouts, with more coming in daily. Remember,” he continued, “it was the work of you that caused the stock price to fall. We can succeed in this. We’re so close, and we will not give in. Keep fighting.”