When they say "pointing straight toward Earth", is that hyperbole? Or are they actually saying that by pure random chance, out of all the possible directions this thing could have taken, it just happens to be pointed directly at earth?
The important thing is that the light from the beam is sufficicently bright that it is not possible to resolve the surrounding region of space to see more detail.
Quick search says there are a very large amount of black holes but maybe not so many super-massive that produce these beams of light so eh, who knows.