Sinclair Broadcasting Foreshadows the Death of Local News
The Business Journal
For two weeks now, Blog for Iowa has been running a weekly column by Iowa's Ted Remington called "The Counterpoint."
Remington started writing "The Counterpoint" in response to the faux
journalism and slanted commentary being forced on Iowans by Sinclair
Broadcasting. In this article from The Business Journal, the true
depth of the destructive nature of what Sinclair Broadcasting is
perpetrating on the American public is revealed.
MINNEAPOLIS - Tune into the evening news
on the Fox TV affiliate in Madison, Wis.,and behold the future of local
news. In the program's concluding segment, "The Point," Mark Hyman
rants against peace activists ("wack-jobs"), the French ("cheese-eating
surrender monkeys"), progressives ("loony left") and the so-called
liberal media, usually referred to as the "hate-America crowd" or the
"Axis of Drivel." Colorful, if creatively anemic, this is TV's version
of talk radio, with the precisely tanned Hyman playing a second-string
Limbaugh.
Fox 47's
right-wing rants may be the future of hometown news, but - believe it
or not - it's not the program's blatant ideological bias that is most
worrisome. Here's the real problem: Hyman isn't the station manager, a
local crank, or even a journalist. He is the Vice President of
Corporate Communications for the station's owner, the Sinclair
Broadcast Group. And this segment of the local news isn't exactly
local. Hyman's commentary is piped in from the home office in
Baltimore, and mixed in with locally-produced news. Sinclair aptly
calls its innovative strategy "NewsCentral" - it is very likely to
spell the demise of local news as we know it.
To read the full report, click here.
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Saturday, August 21
Sinclair Broadcasting Foreshadows the Death of Local News
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 21 Aug 2004 04:46 AM CDT
Friday, August 20
The Counterpoint: We're Just Wondering . . .
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 20 Aug 2004 08:29 AM CDT
 The Counterpoint: We're Just Wondering . . . The rational counter to "The Point," "The Counterpoint" critiques and corrects the daily editorial by Sinclair Broadcasting's corporate vice president, Mark Hyman, that is broadcast on all Sinclair-owned television stations across the country. by Iowa's Ted Remington On the surface, Mark Hyman’s latest collection of "short takes" appears typically banal and free of anything of consequence (the latest Kerry “scandal”: a press pass issued for a Detroit event featured an image of a prototype automobile manufactured by Rolls Royce). But then there’s this little gem: "Did you know there will no longer be a majority religious denomination in America? According to the National Opinion Research Center, Protestants will fall below 50% as early as this year for the first time since the colonial era. The decline is attributed to the rise in people claiming no religious practice and an increase in Islam, Buddhism and other Eastern faiths." At first blush, this is simply a statement of a marginally interesting fact. But facts are rarely what they seem in the world of “The Point,” and there’s an underlying ugliness lurking here. Imagine a neighbor approaching you and saying, “Hey, there’s a new family moving into the old Richardson place on the corner. Just saw the U-Haul pull in this morning. Did you know they were a black family?” Again, if you parse this sentence word by word, this seems innocent enough: simply the sharing of information. The choice to insert an otherwise irrelevant fact into the conversation, however, carries a clear message. Translated, it would be something like: “Listen: I didn’t pay through the nose for my house to live next to people like that. Things are changing, and not for the better. No sir, I’m not happy about this - not one little bit!“ Or, “Hey, friend: I don’t know for sure how you feel about this, so I’m trying to be as delicate as I can, but if you don’t like the idea of living next to a bunch of ... well ... those people, you can talk freely to me about it. I’m on your side. I won’t turn you in to the P.C. police.” Both Hyman and the hypothetical bigoted neighbor cover themselves with plausible deniability. Challenge them to explain the meaning behind what they said, and they’ll respond, “Whoa! Hang on there - you’ve got me all wrong! I was just pointing out a fact, nothing more. Heck, some of my best friends are (black, Hindi, Catholic, etc.)” But their message and intentions are clear enough. They’re speaking in a code, feeling us out to see if we feel the same way they do and, if so, to commiserate with us on this clear sign of our collective slide toward Gomorrah. The NORC is in the business of gathering information such as this, and there' s no reason to see their reporting of this fact as having an underlying message anymore than there is to see unspoken racism in a Census Bureau chart that documented more African Americans moving to the suburbs. In both cases, it's the speaker and the context (or lack thereof) that's crucial: "Say, did you happen to notice . . . ." And if there’s any doubt about the “us/them” aspect of Hyman’s comment, note the telling bit of historical ignorance: Hyman claims that Protestants have been in the majority since “colonial times.” . . . Did the issue of [the existence of] Native Americans [and their own systems of spirituality] not occur to Hyman, or did he consciously decide to ignore it? Perhaps, in Hyman’s world, this is a distinction without a difference. We’re just wondering. And that’s "The Counterpoint." You can read "The Counterpoint" daily here. Friday, August 13
The Counterpoint: Deficit Distortions
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 13 Aug 2004 12:53 PM CDT
The Counterpoint: Deficit Distortions Iowa's Ted Remington Responds to Sinclair Broadcasting There’s no way to respond to the most recent "Point" without going line by line. So here we go (“The Point” is in italics; “The Counterpoint” is in Roman type): There is no doubt about it. Deficits are not good. Thank you, Adam Smith. Yet our government is in a deficit to the tune of more than $400 billion for next year. Actually, it’s nearly $500 billion. Both the pResident and the Congress need to rein in spending and get back to a balanced budget. It’s pretty much just the pResident and the Republican House leadership that need to rein in their spending tendencies. Conservative Republicans felt the wrath of this administration and its closest congressional allies when a few of them pointed out that Bush has supported large spending increases. For an example, see this article from "The Hill." Much of today's deficits are attributable to too much spending. . . This is true, but needs to be explained a bit more. According to the conservative Heritage Foundation, pork barrel spending has increased dramatically in the last several years, during most of which Republicans controlled the White House and Congress. . . . and pResident Bush's middle income tax relief. Directly contradicting what Bush said during the 2000 campaign, what he’s said as president, and what Hyman says here, the vast majority of Bush’s tax cuts go to the wealthy. Middle and working class taxpayers got around $100 in 2003-2004, and even that minimal amount disappears over the course of the tax cut plan, as the cuts become more and more skewed toward the rich as the years go by. For details, see this study by the Center for Tax Justice. Taxes were cut to put more money in the hands of consumers to jump-start the economy which began to slide in the spring of 2000. Many conservative commentators like to suggest Bush inherited a recession. Actually, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the recession didn’t begin until March of 2001. In fact, in the spring of 2001, the biggest economic concern about the national debt was paying it off too quickly, according to Fed chair Alan Greenspan. But before we get too critical regarding deficits let's look at the facts and discuss the impact deficits have on today's economy. Sure, why not? The US has averaged 5.6, the annualized unemployment rate for 2004 is lower than the annual rate for 19 of the previous 25 years. The fact of the matter is that since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression, no president has actually managed a net loss in jobs . . . until now. During a period that included a World War, several other global conflicts, many recessions, and a major energy crisis, no president failed to create at least some jobs, except George W. Bush. It is all but a mathematical certainty that he will be the first pResident since Hoover to lose jobs. Moreover, wages have fallen for those who do have jobs, and many people have simply stopped looking for jobs because the employment situation is so bleak, leading to an official jobless rate that’s artificially low. For more on this, see the sobering stats from Jobwatch.org. So while deficits are not good business, it's clear the deficits have not hurt our current economic situation. Actually, they have, and most economists (including Fed chair Alan Greenspan) warn that continued deficits will have increasingly dire consequences for the economy. Not only do deficits hurt our economic situation, but they hurt the global economy. The International Monetary Fund has warned that current U.S. debt will likely result in worldwide economic problems. And given a choice, I'd rather have deficits with robust economic growth, low unemployment and inflation rates, and record home ownership than a balanced budget with the sluggish economy that resulted from the false promises of the high-tech 90's . . . False promises? The period from 1991 to 2001 was the largest continual economic expansion in history. You don’t get this from a tech “bubble.” You get it from sound economic policies. In fact, in the spring of 2001, Alan Greenspan saw no reason to question the inherent strength of the U.S. economy, barring policy decisions that might undermine it. Gosh, what happened? Hmmmmmmmmm… . . . and the 2001 terrorist attacks. Tax cuts have contributed far more to current deficits than post 9/11 defense spending, and the economy has continued to underperform compared to the Administration’s own predictions since September 11, 2001. Our next step is to have both a strong economy and a balanced budget. Neither of which will happen with George W. Bush in the White House. Look, if you want to know about deficits and this administration’s attitudes toward them, look no further than Ron Suskind’s The Price of Loyalty. From Bush’s own Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, we learn that Dick Cheney thinks “deficits don’t matter” and that huge tax cuts for the wealthy are a goal not because they believe they help the economy, but simply because that’s their political policy. Tax breaks for the wealthy aren’t a means to and end; they’re the end. What happens when someone sensible like O’Neill suggests this might not be the best way to run the economy? He loses his job. Well, at least he’s got plenty of company. And that's The Point. And THIS is "The Counterpoint." Blog for Iowa will feature Ted Remington's "The Counterpoint" on a weekly basis. Go here to read The Counterpoint every day. Tuesday, August 10
The Counterpoint: Iowa’s Great New Blog!
by
Linda Thieman
on Tue 10 Aug 2004 05:00 AM CDT
The Counterpoint: Iowa’s Great New Blog!
The new Iowa blog called “The Counterpoint” is the brainchild of U of Iowa rhetoric teacher Ted Remington. As Ted puts it, “It began basically as a way to vent my own frustration with "The Point" being forced on KGAN viewers. I wrote a piece for the Iowa City Press Citizen a couple of months ago about Sinclair Broadcasting, got a good response, and wanted to do something to follow up on it. I found myself writing critical responses to Sinclair often enough that I finally decided to simply do it online so that other like-minded people might have a chance to see it (and also so Sinclair knew that my criticisms were, at least in a small way, available to a wider audience rather than simply being directed at them privately).” ”As a teacher of rhetoric, I get particularly ticked off at sloppy and misleading argumentation,” Remington continues. He says two things infuriate him about the broadcast of “The Point”: first, “the specific opinions in "The Point" and the fact that it's forced on local viewers by Sinclair executives in Baltimore,” and second, “the style of the argumentation (distortions, ad hominem attacks, etc.) It's talk radio babble posing as reasoned journalistic opinion, and I think people who use such simplistic thinking need to be called on it. I try to [call them on] it with attention to facts and details (e.g., I include hyperlinks to both the "Point" itself as well as to relevant outside sources), with a little humor, sarcasm, and parody thrown in when I can manage it.” Sounds like a good read and a much-needed public service! Ted will be sharing “The Counterpoint” with Blog for Iowa readers on a weekly basis. Visit “The Counterpoint” here. |
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