Despicable

Usually, Hyman’s “Mailbag” segments are exercises in self-congratulation in which he quotes from several viewers who agree with him, and perhaps includes one or two critical responses that are usually chosen or excerpted in a way that makes those who disagree with him seem unreasonable.

This is true almost every week, and I usually don’t bother commenting on them because by now, we’re all familiar with Hyman’s game.

But the most recent Mailbag segment contained a bit of unadulterated ugliness that must be acknowledged.

Hyman quotes viewer responses to the decision by a judge to sentence a convicted child molester to treatment rather than a lengthy prison sentence. As pointed out here, while this decision might seem unreasonable at first glance, the truth of the matter is that thanks to arbitrary state regulations, the convicted man would not have been eligible for treatment had he been sentenced to a multi-year prison sentence. He would have probably spent a maximum of 8 years in jail, meaning that when he got out, he would simply be an untreated child molester who had been incarcerated for a few years. The sentence the judge handed down was the only way to guarantee that the next time this individual is free, he’ll have gone through extensive treatment.

Reasonable people can disagree about the choice the judge made when faced with this dilemma, but Hyman did everything in his power in his original commentary to demonize the judge and suggest he did not take the rape of a child seriously. He even went so far as to encourage viewers to give the judge an “attitude adjustment,” providing his audience with the judge’s phone number (the better to make harassing phone calls with).

If that wasn’t bad enough, in his mailbag segment, Hyman approvingly quotes a letter writer who asks the rhetorical question, “"What do you get for killing stupid judges?"

Apparently Hyman thought this was clever. But in light of Hyman’s previous encouragement of viewers to harass the judge in question, the quoting of this letter to an audience of millions is tantamount to a threat of physical violence.

This goes beyond liberal/conservative or issues of media reform.

This is simply a despicable act by a despicable human being.

And that’s The Counterpoint.