What is the sound of one voice talking?

That Zen-like question occurred to me recently as I placed yet another call to Mark Hyman, vice-president of the Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc, the largest single owner/operator of television stations in the United States. (With 62 stations in 39 markets, Sinclair reaches approximately 24 percent of U.S. television households and includes ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, UPN, and WB affiliates.)

Not surprisingly, the call went unreturned — as had numerous others I had placed to Hyman since mid-December.

I was phoning to take Hyman up on his offer of having a “conversation.”

Go figure.

My efforts were precipitated by the launch on December 13 of a nationwide campaign aimed at exposing the conservative slanting of Sinclair television news programming. The campaign was created by a coalition that includes our web site MediaChannel.org, along with Media Matters for America, MoveOn.org, Working Assets, Robert Greenwald (director of the film Outfoxed), Campaign for America’s Future, Free Press, and AlterNet.

Although Sinclair has demonstrated its conservative political leanings numerous times in the past, (it sent a team to Iraq to report “good news” about the war and forced each of its sixty-two stations to broadcast a pledge of support for Bush; it refused to air a Nightline special listing the name of every American soldier killed in Iraq, and it gave national exposure to Stolen Honor, the documentary attacking John Kerry, just weeks before the election,) the coalition focused its protest on the company’s airing of “The Point,” a daily news commentary read by Hyman. The groups asked activists to contact Sinclair advertisers to enlist them in the campaign to get Sinclair to provide balance to “The Point.”

Hyman responded “pointedly” — if indirectly — in an interview with Broadcasting and Cable magazine, “As soon as MoveOn.org allows me to use their email lists and post to their Web site, maybe then we will have a conversation,” Hyman said.

“The largest owner of television stations in the country is now equating itself with an advocacy organization, rather than a media outlet,” said Media Matters chief David Brock. ” The real issue is that Sinclair Broadcast Group is abusing its stewardship of the public airwaves by not providing airtime for opposing viewpoints.”

Since, unlike Moveon, MediaChannel is a media outlet, I decided to take Mark Hyman up on his offer to “have a conversation,” and telephoned him in mid-December in hope of beginning a constructive dialogue. He returned the call late one night and left a message asking me to fax him the particulars of my proposal, which I did on December 21.

“I appreciate your openness to dialogue,” the fax to Hyman began. “The MediaChannel favors ‘post-partisan’ dialogue on issues of media and democracy, and would be pleased to enter into what you recently described to the industry trade journal Broadcasting & Cable as ‘a conversation.’

“Toward that end, we propose the following exchange: we open our site regularly to your commentaries, and in exchange Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. opens its airwaves equally to MediaChannel-originated ‘counterpoints.’

“Such a reciprocal arrangement would help ensure that we will be able to ‘work together in good faith to help ensure responsible news programming in the public interest,’ as the coalition recently called for. I welcome an opportunity to speak with you directly to work out mutually acceptable details.”

That was more than six weeks ago. Since then more than a half-dozen calls to Hyman have been ignored.

In the meantime, however, Hyman debuted a new format for “The Point” on January 31. The new opening sequence omits the word “commentary.”

Previously Hyman had justified injecting “The Point’s” right-wing rhetoric into the local evening news broadcasts of Sinclair’s 62 stations on the grounds that the word “commentary” appeared on screen throughout. On January 5, for example, he responded to criticism by claiming “one would be hard pressed to find any other commentary or opinion program anywhere else on television — broadcast or cable — where the word ‘commentary’ appears the entire time the host is on the screen.” And previously he told The Baltimore Sun, “I think the word ‘commentary’ must flash across the screen … about 58 times, and the word is on the screen the entire time that I appear — we go out of our way to make sure people know it’s purely opinion.”

But in the new format, the word “commentary” doesn’t appear until the middle or end of the segment, and then only in small letters at the bottom of the screen.

Every station that Sinclair owns or operates is required to air “The Point.” The company estimates that “roughly 1.8 million American adults” watch “The Point” every evening, although Hyman claims in his bio that “The Point” has a “daily household audience [of] more than two and one-half million daily viewers.” (He also noted that he “has relied heavily on his more than 20 years of experience as a military veteran and intelligence officer in addressing commentary topics.”)

If Board Chairman, President and CEO David D. Smith takes Sinclair’s role as a steward of the public airwaves seriously, (Sinclair is on record as being committed to “the highest journalistic standards and integrity,” and “to present[ing] both sides of the issues covered in an equal and impartial manner, ” perhaps he’ll find time to have a conversation soon with Mark Hyman. Maybe Smith has a better proposal than mine that will lead to Sinclair providing a meaningful opportunity for those with an opposing point of view to respond to editions of the “The Point.” Maybe Hyman will even take his call, who knows?

In the interim, if you’d like to try to speak to Mark Hyman yourself, with the aim of actually having the conversation he claims he’d like to start, here’s his contact information:

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
10706 Beaver Dam Road
Hunt Valley, Maryland 21030
410-568-1500 (Main Telephone)
410-568-1533 (Main Fax)

And if Hyman doesn’t answer you either, you can still check out SinclairAction.com, a forum in which the public (at least) can discuss these issues.

After all, isn’t that really “the Point?”