The Point

I was watching the local news late last night (my first mistake!), drifting between sleep and semi-consciousness. I got up to go to bed just as The Point, a commentary by Mark Hyman, was wrapping up. When I got up, I rewound in my head what I had been watching so I could get my daily “I hate the local news” feeling before going to bed. The problem was I couldn’t distinguish what I had seen during the regular news and what was featured on The Point. That’s a problem, isn’t it? Isn’t it a bad thing to have one guy use the news show context to deliver his opinion on news stories? Forget Fox. The news-opinion format has already hit our local stations and, not surprisingly, it’s in support of the same crowd.

Like many of you, the first time I saw Mark Hyman interrupt news broadcasts with a one-minute commentary called The Point, it took me some time to realize that he was not actually part of the local affiliate giving us a local commentary on news. In fact, it’s only recently that I realized that Mark Hyman is actually vice president of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the owner of 62 television stations who forced the airing of the anti-Kerry documentary before the election. The Point is aired across the country, dangerously blurring the line between news and political campaigning. Hyman uses the context of a news show to seamlessly evolve news into political commentary, hoping that you don’t notice and realize who he is, what his political affiliation is, what company he works for or how bias his point of view is against liberal positions.

Although Hyman’s anti-Kerry position is clear, he still insists that there was no bias against the candidate: Asked if there is bias at Sinclair against Kerry, Hyman said, “I certainly hope not. There shouldn't be."
Hyman desperately attempts to continue disguising himself and his show as independent from political affiliation, supposedly providing information that you’re otherwise not getting—information that is “newsworthy.” He’s betting on the hope that you don’t realize, or care, that Sinclair has donated an enormous amount of money to the Republican Party since 1993. But all you really have to do is check out Hyman’s recommended readings. See a trend?

Worst of all, the man encourages you to send comments via his website. Why? Maybe to continue the guise of independence from party affiliation, much like Bill O’Reilly discusses emails during The O’Reilly Factor. Do the opinions of others alter the point on The Point?

We can’t have another election allowing this. We need to re-examine the use of airwaves for political discourse. This is where the battle should begin for the Democrats; get the playing field even again (after we set uniform national voting standards!).