The Religious Left is Left Out by the Commercial Media (AlterNet)

[marmar]

The Religious Left is Left Out by the Commercial Media

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted May 30, 2007.



A new study by Media Matters for America shows that when the topic is religion, the media looks disproportionately to hard-line right-wingers for comment.

People can attach a thousand different meanings to words like "faith" and "values," yet when it comes to religion and politics, we've been conditioned to understand that they have a narrow and decidedly right-wing tilt. When pundits speak the phrase -- often in reverent tones -- we know they're not talking about the pacifism valued by Quakers, the environmental stewardship valued by Wiccans or the act of caring for the hungry, poor and sick that's valued by almost all faiths.

So after the 2004 election, when exit polls found that more people identified "moral values" as their most important issue than any other, it led to endless hand-wringing among liberals and Democrats about how they could win back "values voters" and a thousand columns about how progressive America is largely a secular, even God-hating America and would therefore always be a marginal part of the body politic. The electorate, we were told, was divided between pro-choice, gay-tolerant "blue," and anti-choice, gay-bashing "red."

Later, post-election surveys showed that gay marriage and abortion had in fact had little or no effect on the independent vote, the vote in battleground states, or the vote in states with anti-gay marriage initiatives on the ballot. It wasn't until an exit poll conducted by Zogby after last year's midterm elections found that the "moral issue" cited most by voters was the Iraq war that the particular piece of conventional wisdom was abandoned by many political junkies, but it persists today among too many reporters.

How did that happen? How is it possible that political reporters routinely and without irony refer to people who have no moral qualms about bombing another country as a matter of choice rather than necessity as "values voters"? How do those same people wear the "values" label even while supporting one of the last death penalties in the industrialized world? How is it that self-proclaimed "Men of God" can call for the assassination of foreign heads of state, blame the 9/11 attacks on Americans' promiscuity and lobby to keep vaccines against deadly cancers out of the hands of young women and still claim to represent the moral compass of spiritual America? .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/52567/

[ingac70]

1. The Media needs shock value for ratings....

and hypocritical attacks on specific groups of people makes for better news than actually helping the poor and sick.

[texpatriot2004]

2. K & R nm

[info being]

3. It amazes me that people are so up-in-arms about Chavez's decision...

...do we not understand the way Corporate Media works and what it is capable of? Would we not support shutting down Fox News if given the opportunity?

Corporations do not have a right to free speech...or at least they shouldn't.

[datahead]

4. The Media is controlled by right wing nuts

that have been feeding us propaganda for years. While I don't agree with last post about freedom of speech, as that is a right for everyone in America. The American public needs to step up and say enough is enough! Start giving us real news and both sides of the story. I personally am tired of hearing about who's who's in Hollywood instead of current events that we really need to know about.

[intheflow]

5. Absolutely true!

If they interview anyone on the religious left, it's Tony Campolo, who's actually a strict evangelical Biblical literalist who just happens to also have taken Jesus' message of compassion to heart. But it's as if the media thinks that if you're not an evangelical Christian, you're not faithful. Taking other faiths out, what about the millions of Christians--the majority of Christians--who aren't evangelical, mostly fundamentalist nutcases? I really don't see them on tv at all.

[athebea]

6. Because...

...the religious left flatly does not have the motivation and intensity of the religious right.

The religious left is people to whom religion is a hobby. People who just go to church for the 'companionship'. Hardly anything that anyone would be prepared to die for.

[TrogL]

7. Just 'cause we don't foam at the mouth doesn't mean we're not serious

I don't go to church for companionship. I go to hear the word of God and a sermon based on proper theology - not hatred.

[athebea]

8. You see the degree of intensity from...

... how important it is for a parent to raise children in the faith.

For a religious conservative, the religious education of his/her children is every bit as important a parental responsibility as providing food, clothing, and shelter. Religion is at the core of that family. Religious left churches flatly are seeing the young drift away because religious left parents don't assign anything like that importance to keeping their children in the faith.