Reality TV: The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is getting ready for prime time. The OHA board announced last week that it has decided to move ahead with a possible purchase of two Honolulu-based commercial broadcasting stations, KITV and KIKU, both currently owned by Allen Media Group.

OHA’s press release says the board is interested in exploring whether owning its own TV stations would “responsibly strengthen OHA’s trust assets while expanding Native Hawaiian presence, influence, and ownership in media and communications.”

But The Sunshine Blog is wondering about the idea of OHA of becoming another Fox News or, on the other end of the spectrum, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), to “influence” public policy in a way that benefits one group (in this case Native Hawaiians) above others.

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The OHA board has been torn over the issue, initially voting 5-4 against moving forward until one of the trustees flipped. But Chair Kai Kahele appears enthralled with the idea of using the airwaves to shape media messaging to his liking.

“You know, for generations, Native Hawaiians have too often been the subjects of stories rather than the authors of them,” he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “And while many journalists strive for fairness, ownership still matters because ownership influences priorities, investment, and which voices are consistently elevated.”

The Blog couldn’t agree more that ownership still matters. For decades KITV, as the ABC affiliate in Hawaiʻi, has been a straightforward and reliable broadcast outlet staffed by independent professional journalists with no special interest leanings.

Does every media outlet have blind spots, particularly with so few Native Hawaiian journalists in Hawaiʻi — or anywhere? No doubt. But words matter. Perhaps Kahele and the board should be a little more cautious about using words like “influence” and instead lean into words like “inform,” as in informing the community so that all issues are fairly and impartially aired.

Name that candidate: All those TV and social media ads seem to have been super PAC money well spent for lieutenant governor hopeful Derek Kawakami. New polls show him maintaining a sizable lead over Rep. Della Au Belatti and attorney John Choi. Two other contenders, Sam Puletasi and Bobby Cuadra, barely register.

For A Better Tomorrow, the super PAC owned and operated by Pacific Resource Partnership (Hawaiʻi Carpenters Union plus 250 local contractors) has poured tens of thousands of dollars (at least) into promoting Kawakami, who until now has been relatively unknown outside of Kauaʻi, where he was mayor for the past eight years.

Last week, a new poll released by PRP’s longtime pollster, Tulchin Research, puts Kawakami way up in the race, with 49% of voters to Belatti’s 18% and Choi at 3%.

And yet 29% of voters are still undecided, a summary of the poll says.

The statewide survey of 600 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted June 15-18. It has a margin of error of 4%.

Another poll — conducted last Wednesday and Thursday of 907 likely Democratic primary voters by Public Policy Polling — gave Kawakami 43% with Belatti at 10% and Choi with 4%.

“Part of Kawakami’s lead stems from superior name recognition,” the PPP poll says. “His is 64% compared to 37% for Belatti and 1% for Choi.”

The Tulchin poll also underscored what seems pretty obvious to The Blog. When you spend serious kālā on social media and TV spots, no matter how annoying they are, people are going to notice. Hey, maybe that’s why they’re so annoying?

The Tulchin survey concludes that “Voters Are Hearing More About Kawakami, And Like What They Hear.”

“Overall, 57% of voters say they have recently heard, read, or seen information about Kawakami, including 22% who have heard a lot and 26% who have heard some. Just 40% say they have not recently heard anything about him.”

And, the pollsters say, the info has helped voters feel more favorable toward Kawakami, although The Blog finds that hard to believe.

But perhaps PRP will finally stop with the Kawakami ad blitz, at least during the evening news shows. The Blog can only hope.

How much those ads and other pro-Kawakami actions are costing the well-endowed super PAC, which had $12 million to play with according to its last campaign finance report in February, won’t be known for another month. Non-candidate committees don’t have to file reports with the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission until July 29, which is well after mail-in voting has started and just 10 days before the Aug. 8 primary.

The candidates themselves need to file their next reports July 9.

And a PS: The PPP poll last week also showed that Gov. Josh Green has actually improved on his approval rating. He’s at 79%, up from 71% a few months ago. Green is running for reelection but has drawn no serious challengers. He’s expected to sail through the primary and the general election into a second term.

We hold these truths to be self evident: Folks in Hawaiʻi (and across the country, for that matter) might be a bit confused about official events for the nation’s semiquincentennial. That’s because there are two competing celebrations, one called Freedom 250 (the Trump administration’s official nationwide initiative) and the other called America 250 (authorized by a bipartisan Congress and federally funded).

The former has been marked by that UFC match on the White House lawn, a National Prayer Day, a “Freedom Trucks” traveling exhibit, a Great American State Fair on the National Mall (it started Thursday and runs until July 10), a cancelled concert Friday “starring” Vanilla Ice and a President Trump-led rally and fireworks show Saturday. Freedom 250 events kicked off on Memorial Day 2025 and continue all year.

America 250, meantime, has its own list of multiple happenings including here in Hawaiʻi. The main event is “A Day of Unity & Patriotism” Saturday with all-day events starting at 10 a.m. and fireworks (8 p.m.) in Kapiʻolani Park.

Hawaiʻi America250 was established by an executive order from Gov. Josh Green to coordinate statewide programs, events and educational initiatives commemorating the 250th anniversary. The event is co-sponsored by Mayor Rick Blangiardi and the City and County of Honolulu.

You will not find Hawaiʻi at the Great American State Fair in D.C., however. Peter Young, chair of the Hawai‘i America250 Commission, told The Blog the commission could not afford the $200,000-plus fee to participate. Several other states are not part of the fair, either, citing budget constraints but also concerns that the fair is “more partisan than it has been billed,” according to The Hill.

Young said another major event marking the Fourth will be the the reading “together” of the Declaration of Independence in all 50 states, five territories, D.C. and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands (i.e., Midway Atoll and eight other remote Pacific spots). It starts at 6 p.m. Eastern time July 8, meaning noon in Hawai‘i and 8 a.m. July 9 (due to the International Date Line) in the territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The reading, called “Sharing the Spirit of America,” will be held on the same day 250 years ago when the Declaration was first read publicly in Philadelphia.

“We want people to commemorate a moment in history that we all share as America,” said Young, a former head of the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources. “That document was signed when we were already in war, but it lead to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights — our governing documents or the three Charters of Freedom, as they are called. It all started with the Declaration.”