Sinclair-gate

For the inaugural edition of "The Counterpoint," I thought we would take a look at a recent installment of "The Point" that encapsulates many hallmarks of Mark Hyman's rhetoric, including loaded language, mischaracterization, keeping silent about relevant facts that counter his opinion, and avoiding details that complicate the simplistic characterizations that serve as the backbone of "The Point."

In "Koppelgate II," Mr. Hyman yokes two unrelated incidents together in an attempt to suggest a causal connection where none exists. In the process, he distorts and mischaracterizes both.

In a moment of almost laughable spin, Mr. Hyman reminds his viewers of "Koppelgate," his term for the controversy over Sinclair's decision not to run an episode of ABC's Nightline on its stations entitled "The Fallen" in which Ted Koppel read the names of each serviceman and servicewoman killed in Iraq.

Through the name "Koppelgate" (a term that evokes not simply controversy but criminal wrongdoing), Mr. Hyman suggests that the flap was over the Nightline episode itself, rather than Sinclair's refusal to air "The Fallen." Of course, the controversy was over Sinclair's decision, not the episode itself, which was widely praised. In fact, Sinclair's own viewers stated overwhelmingly that they felt "The Fallen" should be shown, according to an internet poll posted on Sinclair's own "Newscentral TV" website. Hyman fails to mention this, hoping to smear Koppel with the taint of controversy that originated from Sinclair's editorial decision.

But suggesting that it was Koppel, not Sinclair, who committed the controversial act is not enough for Hyman, who goes on to suggest Koppel is against the troops and dishonored them by reading the names of those who had died. How did reading the names of those who gave their lives constitute "dishonoring" the troops? A fair and reasonable question, and therefore not one Mr. Hyman bothers to answer. He simply asserts that Koppel "trivialized" the deaths of soldiers in Iraq.

In a moment of bizarre and twisted logic, even by Hyman standards, he says,

Fellow ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos summed up Koppel's motives when he said, "as we approach the first anniversary of the end of major combat operations…Ted Koppel will read the names of those Americans… killed in action in Iraq."

How does Stephanopoulos's statement of fact sum up Koppel's supposedly dark motives? Again, there's no explanation.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a "Point"-ful of distortions and misinformation, but we're only halfway through.

Hyman then announces that Koppel must be "happy" that he is finally getting his sought-after results. He quotes a story by Robert Jamieson about a small July 4th parade in Washington state. During the parade, Hyman says that, Jason Gilson, a young vet of the Iraq conflict was booed and called "murderer" and "baby killer," and charges that the media are responsible for ill-will toward American troops, just as they were in Vietnam.

Was Gilson booed during a parade in a small town in Washington? Yes. But here, as Paul Harvey would say, is the rest of the story. The veteran in question was not in uniform at the time, and was not identified as a veteran of the Iraq conflict. The young man was, however, holding up a sign that read "Veterans for Bush." There are no witnesses that have corroborated the allegation that the terms "murderer" or "baby-killer" were used.

Hyman mentions none of this (and in fact, inserts the statement that Gilson was wearing his uniform, a statement contradicted by other sources), knowing that by avoiding these facts, he conjurs up the powerful (but false) image of a young uniformed soldier marching down the street simply as a proud member of the armed forces who is set upon by a wild-eyed crowd simply because he served in Iraq (and spurred on, by some bizarre chain of causation, by Ted Koppel reading the names of those killed in Iraq).

The parade took place in a town known as generally quite liberal. It seems unsurprising that someone carrying a placard in support of a politician with little support in a community would receive a hostile reaction (in fact Jamieson admits as much in a follow-up column). Given the circumstances, it seems highly unlikely that the young man was booed because he was an Iraq veteran. Indeed, there was no way for the crowd to have known he was an Iraq veteran or simply a volunteer for the organization sponsoring the placard. Was this treatment entirely civil? No. (In fact, the mayor of the town apologized to the veteran.) But was it a case of people turning against veterans? Hardly. It was the predictable reaction of a crowd to a statement of support for an unpopular politician. That, of course, makes for a less juicy story, so Hyman wilfully plays with the facts until they suit his purpose.

In closing, however, it's worth noting that even if the incident had happened just as Hyman describes, it would make no sense to blame Koppel for it. As nearly everyone in the nation, including family members of many of those who died in Iraq and Hyman's own audience, recognized, the Nightline segment was a simple and moving tribute to a group of men and women who have remained anonymous for far too long. With the government's refusal to allow pictures of American dead returning home for burial, with a deputy defense secretary (Paul Wolfowitz) who had no idea how many Americans had died in Iraq when asked, and with a commander in chief who refuses to attend even a single memorial service for any service member, Koppel's actions served as one of the only ways in which those who have sacrificed all they have and all they would ever hope to have for the country received an iota of recognition. Hyman and those at Sinclair accuse others of dishonoring and trivializing the deaths of American troops for political purposes, but to find who is truly guilty of such a perversion of basic decency, all they have to do is look in the mirror.

And that's The Counterpoint.

For an insightful, well-written, and fascinating article about the evolution of the Bainbridge story, see this piece from a local paper in Washington state, The Sun.