"The Point" peddled discredited anti-Kerry author Corsi's new book

Sinclair Broadcast Group vice president Mark Hyman devoted the February 8 edition of "The Point" to promoting a forthcoming book by Jerome R. Corsi, the discredited co-author of the anti-John Kerry book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry (Regnery, 2004). Hyman touted Corsi, whom he identified as a "New York Times number one best selling author," and his new book, Atomic Iran: How The Terrorist Regime Bought The Bomb And American Politicians (WND Books, March 2005), but Hyman did not mention Corsi's history of racist, homophobic, xenophobic, anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim comments, which Media Matters for America first exposed and which has been widely reported (by The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Associated Press, among others).

As Media Matters has noted, Corsi apologized for the postings, which appeared on the right-wing online forum FreeRepublic.com, in interviews on August 10, 2004, with the Associated Press and radio host Sean Hannity, classifying his comments (which included calling Pope John Paul II "senile"; asking if Senator "HELLary" Clinton is "a lesbo or anything"; and calling Muslims "RAGHEADS" and "Boy-Bumpers") as "silly," saying he "thought they were jokes," and complaining that they were taken "completely out of context." According to the Boston Herald, Corsi later said that criticizing him for his online comments is "'like saying Shakespeare is responsible for something one of his characters said.'"

On "The Point," Hyman claimed that Atomic Iran is "painstakingly researched and documented" and that "Corsi asserts that [Iranian] regime supporters were active in the 2004 Presidential campaign, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars." Corsi has previously suggested that Kerry's position on Iran was motivated by bribery, a claim that Media Matters has debunked. The web version of "The Point" also contained a link to Amazon.com's listing of Corsi's book, where it is available for pre-order.

Corsi is a columnist for conservative news website WorldNetDaily.com, and Atomic Iran is published by WND Books, WorldNetDaily.com's publishing division. Corsi's columns have had such titles as "John Kerry and the politics of betrayal," "Iran -- John Kerry's next Vietnam?" and "John Kerry's Irangate?" On January 25, the Boston Herald reported that Corsi planned to move to Massachusetts "so he can challenge Kerry for his Senate seat in 2008."

"The Point," presented by Hyman, is a two-minute conservative commentary that airs nightly without a counterpoint on the 62 television stations Sinclair Broadcast Group owns or operates. Media Matters leads SinclairAction.com, a coalition of groups and individuals protesting Sinclair's continued misuse of public airwaves to broadcast one-sided, politically charged programming without a counterpoint.

—J.C.