The Sinclair Broadcasting Group yesterday announced that it would not air a documentary slamming John Kerry’s Vietnam War record in its entirety. The conservative chain of TV stations said it would only air portions of the film as part of an hour-long special scheduled for Friday. Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the nonprofit Media Access Project, called the Sinclair move “a surprising cave-in” and said the company “clearly felt a lot of pressure and this is an attempt to find a face-saving way out.” Sinclair had been threatened with lawsuits and economic boycotts for considering airing a one-sided documentary so close to the election. Sinclair’s stock price has dropped 15 percent over the past two weeks. Sinclair has ordered 40 of its stations to air a one-hour program on Friday called “A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media,” using footage from “Stolen Honor” and other political documentaries while examining allegations of media bias. The film Stolen Honor is extremely harsh on Kerry. According to the New York Times the film charges Kerry single-handedly prolonged the Vietnam War and caused the deaths of countless U.S. soldiers due to his antiwar activism 30 years ago. The film also claims Kerry’s activism worsened the torture of U.S. POWs in Vietnam. Sinclair’s chief executive David Smith and his three brothers have been major financial supporters of the Bush campaign.