Is ABC turning into the 700 Club News Network?

[kevinbgoode]

Okay...maybe it is me, but it sure seems like ABC News is constantly running some kind of "religious" feature - often focused on fundie social life (but not always). It seems almost every day now they are running or hyping some kind of Christian story - I can't remember the last time any group in this country got so much attention. Last week, 20/20 did a big story about "Is there a Hell?"...tomorrow, Good Morning America is doing the "Is Faith Coming to YOUR company"..contending that companies are having their employees turn to prayer at the office. Then the evening news tonight (Thursday) will be covering what ABC calls the "growing demand" for the Bible figure dolls - I suppose fueled by WaLmarts experimental stocking of the non-action figures.

Now maybe I'm off base here, and this comes on the heels of listening to Jay Sekulow on the radio today go into an absolute tizzy about how the President MUST issue an executive order allowing the fundie chaplains to proselytize at will (rather than, apparently, serve the troops with respect to their own faith needs). But did I miss something? Has someone at ABC declared the network the official faith endorser for America? I get the feeling there is someone at that network in a position who is dictating such regularity of these stories - especially because I'm beginning to wonder if ABC only thinks there is Paris Hilton and The Fundies. . .and the rest of us in this country don't exist.

[and-justice-for-all]

1. Sounds like a bunch of fluff to me...

..paying lip service to the delusional because Pat Robertsons and the like shoved some money their way.

and no, you can smile because there is no hell. Because if there is a hell, then Santa is just as real.

[liberal N proud]

2. ABC Family channel used to be Robertsons network

His show the 700 Club still runs on that network several times a day. I would bet there are some relationships there where Robertson has a lot of influence.

[Tesha]

3. We noticed this several years ago.

After Peter Jennings retired, the ABC evening news
did a complete revamp. After they settled on what
we considered the worst anchor of the several that
ABC was trying out, they also started doing what we
referred to as the "every evening pander-to-religion
puff piece".

It was at that point that we finally gave up on the
watching any of the network evening news programs.

But make no mistake, the pandering piece was a
deliberate "design" decision by ABC news. I wonder
if it gained them more viewers than it drove away?
Somehow, I doubt it.

Tesha

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. It's not you , it's them.

Not your imagination at all. Part of a more generalized drift to the far right that has characterized ABC "News" over the last few years.

Said shift highlighted by the departure of relatively 'legit' newspeople ( Jennings, Koppell, Brinkley... even Walters) and their replacement by such as Stossell, Stephanapoulous and the British 'Michael Jackson is a pervert' guy on Niteline ( which used to be devoted to 'hard news' ... if perhaps superficially... but is now all infotainment.).

Did I say shift to the right ? Yes... and an inexorable shift from dumb to dumber still. No coincidence there.

Perhaps it's supply and demand , also: ABC making a bid for a chunk of the Fox audience. Hard to tell'em apart at this point, whatever the cause.

[ClintonTyree]

5. And people wonder why....

I'm a radical atheist, preferring that I sit quietly in the background and be a "good little atheist" and not comment or combat the blatant proselytizing in every crevice of our society. "Homey don't play that", would be my answer. :)

I've noticed the evolution ;) of ABC into a religious tool as well. As part of the Disney family they're determined to maintain a squeaky clean image, pandering to the religious and elderly. In the end, it's all about the money. Disney acts civil once a year with a G/L/B weekend (you wouldn't find a southern baptist within a 100 mile radius then) because they like the color of their money as well. But for the most part they're freshly scrubbed "family" oriented. I needn't explain the true meaning of that word to anyone here at DU.