Clear Channel, Jr.

After last night's news on the Madison, Wisconsin, Fox affiliate, Mark Hyman opined that he's "tired of lies":

Editorials in liberal papers such as the New York Times and Baltimore Sun--begging for more time for diplomacy--conveniently leave out the fact that diplomacy started in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. They don’t mention that Saddam has not honored the diplomatic efforts of 17 UN Security Council resolutions in the last dozen years.

They want you to believe that world solidarity starts with France, but don’t tell you that the cheese eating surrender monkeys have been profiting off legal and illegal Iraqi business dealings for decades.

What these bastions of the "hate America crowd" don’t realize is that we are all tired of the lies.

Turns out not only Madisonians were blessed with Hyman's wisdom; the program, "The Point," is piped out to stations in more than 62 markets, from Baltimore all the way to Sacramento (and including the Twin Cities WB affiliate, WB23). The program, a segment within a show called NewsCentral, is produced by Sinclair Broadscast Group, an ultraconservative network that, aside from owning and operating stations, provides 20-minute canned segments of "news" that can be supplemented with a few minutes of local reporting.

Mark Jeffries, of TVBarn, calls Sinclair the "Clear Channel of local news." He writes:

[T]he national style of "NewsCentral" seems to be taking on a fiercely right-wing approach that makes Fox News Channel look like a model of objectivity. Newsblues.com quotes national anchor Morris Jones making this statement on last night's newscast: "Apparently thinking the war had already begun, a small group of Iraqi soldiers crossed the border into Kuwait holding a white flag. It may also be the new flag of France."

Hyman, who, it turns out, is Sinclair's Vice President, came under fire in December 2001 for his inane criticism of media coverage of the military strikes in Afghanistan. Among the zingers in his commentary:

Some of the network television newscasts have apparently forgotten that this country is engaged in a war with a ruthless enemy, and they are now broadcasting thoughtful pieces, suggesting the Taliban are [sic] misunderstood… If you listen to public radio, you would think that the U.S. military is only targeting schools, hospitals, mosques, and Red Cross shelters… What he have witnessed in recent days is questionable reporting that gives aid and comfort to the enemy and-in some cases-provides a platform for enemy propaganda.

Hyman lashes out at Peter Jennings and the big networks for being too liberal. As the media conversation shifts ever rightward--with Sinclair and Fox News grabbing more and more viewers, and CNN trying regain market share with its increasingly hawkish war coverage--the definition of liberal, as it's defined by the conservative media, changes. If Peter Jennings is a liberal, what do you call Amy Goodman
(Thanks, Ben.)