OK, so it’s Easter Sunday morning, and I’m flipping through the dial desperately searching for something interesting to watch that doesn’t involve creepy old papabiles gesticulating their hands over golden artifacts while chanting something in mumbo-jumbonese. That’s when I tune to the KUSI Morning Show just in time to see journalist Doug Curlee reporting on Easter service at the Cabrillo Monument.
“The message was a simple one,” Curlee said about the Pastor’s sermon. “God’s love is always there waiting for us. We don’t even have to work that hard for it. Just think about that fact.”
Uh oh. Did he really just call God’s love a fact? I had to rewind my DVR to double-check, and, sure as shit don’t shop at Tiffany’s, there was Doug Curlee, a 40-year news veteran confirming the actual, factual existence of Thy Lord, Thy God and also, as matter of actual fact, confirming that Thy Lord, Thy God loves everybody.
How anyone could ever presume to know what is inside God’s mind is, to me, one of the higher mysteries of humanity. But to report this hocus pocus as fact, on a television news program, in the 21st freaking century, a good 30 years after Sidney Lumet gave us Network, and hundreds of years after, you know, reason was invented—well, holy crap, I never realized how pathetic the KUSI news division actually is.
Is it KUSI or CBN fer crissake? God is not a fact. God is the opposite of fact. God is faith. Faith and fact are about as compatible as shaved chocolate on ballpark hotdogs. I always thought the word “fact” had to do with logic and evidence and proof and stuff. Doug Curlee thinks a fact is something he read in book that was written more than 3,500 years ago by people who believed an invisible man in the sky was talking to them.
Now, it’s possible that saying “fact” was just a figure of his speech. Well, if I had any doubt that Doug Curlee intended to identify the existence of God as fact, what he said next surely smothered it. He said verbatim, “Easter is the day, of course, that Christ was resurrected.”
Here again Curlee , who looks like a priest, with his white hair, wire glasses, and snug white collar, is stating Christian dogma as fact. He may not have used the word “fact” this time, but he certainly affirmed the resurrection. A better journalist would’ve said, “Easter is the day Christians believe Christ was resurrected.” Curlee even added the phrase “of course” to the sentence. His exact quote was: “This is the day, of course, that Christ was resurrected.” Well, of course “of course.” How could anyone question that story? The Bible is a perfectly legitimate news source, and the witnesses to the resurrection were just sooo credible. It’s not like rising from the dead isn’t an easy parlor trick that any mediocre magician could pull off. It’s not like people back then weren’t stupider, desperater, easier-to-manipulatier than now. It’s not like the folks who witnessed Christ’s resurrection didn’t have a reason to stage it, or lie about it or want to believe it. Oh please! That’s enough right there to question the veracity of The Bible’s account of Jesus’ resurrection. Then there’s the problem of how ancient it is and how often it was rewritten and, Jesus Cronkite Curlee, even the Weekly World News is a more reliable source than the goddamn Bible.
By the way, this religious drivel didn’t end with Doug Curlee. Others on the broadcast were behaving similarly: Dave Scott the weatherman gave his props to The Lord also. After Curlee, Scott gave a weather report from the site of another Easter service on Mount Helix. He reported about the crappy weather, then mentioned how the Helix Easter service was over and that he was alone on the mountain. “Well, the Big Man is always with us,” he told anchor Dave Davis, to which Davis added a hearty, “Well yeah.” As if to say, “Well, duh! Of course the Big Man is with us—what do you think, I’m agnostic?”
Maybe I just never noticed, but I don’t recall ever hearing a news team display such overt religious preference like this. Oh sure, the overall grotesque, super, extra-hyper media over-coverage of our Judeo-Christian holidays is a gnarly bias in itself. But at least the reporting was once-removed. Even Fox News does that. However, watching this Easter broadcast, it’s as if KUSI identified itself as a Christian news station, something a real news organization would never allow. Revealing partiality toward any religion is a conflict of interest, especially when reporting on anything remotely faith-based. And, knowing what we know about the institution of religion in general, that bias would surely seep into everything else it reports—like the war, or local politics, even the weather. I mean, Dave Scott might as well just have come out and said, “Yup, it’s very cloudy at Mt. Helix today—must be God’s mad at us about something.”
It’s the same as when Fox News displayed the American flag under its logo in the days following 9/11. Doing so pretty much identified the network as having a bias, in this case a geopolitical one. Of course, a real news division would never fly any flag, or covet any religion, because any news organization worth half a tick on its ticker-tape machine has a predisposition only to truth. Not the truth as Americans want it, or as Christians want it, but the real true truth, which is, of course, the greater cause of course, of course, of course.
Come on, KUSI, don’t you see? Separation of church and media is as important as separation of church and state. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting you don’t have the right to embrace and present whatever hocus pocus you got duped into believing. And I am certainly not calling for the firing of Curlee or Scott or Davis, offensive though they be. No, what I’m going to do is either stop watching KUSI news altogether or, more likely, continue to watch it in the manner in which I watch O’Reilly, or Hannity or Reno 911—as a zany comedy show with kooky idiot-clown characters who say and do outrageous things, like broadcasting news reports on an invisible man who lives in the sky. I find it’s much better when you view it that way.
EJD
04/14/07
Comments (5)
In response to the article entitled KUSI for Khrist...
WOW, did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed? I happened to pick up the City Beat at the library today and flipped to this article, only to have the writer scream out how offended he/she is to have someone actually acknowledge Easter as a Christian holiday instead of a celebration of eggs and chocolate!
IF this writer were to consider actually researching the Christian faith and the person of Jesus, he/she would find phenomenal evidence (yes, evidence) for the life and claims of Jesus Christ. There are more actual documents confirming the Bible than all other ancient historical books combined (>30,000).
The life of Jesus fulfilled > 300 prophecies which is statistically "impossible". (ie cover the state of Texas with 1 foot of silver dollars, mark one with a red dot and you have one chance to get it... got it?? a laymans view of the probability)
Studying a faith or religion before condemning it, would be at the very least, a courtesy. Unfortunately, it appears the writer has some kind of "grievance" to vent.
I commend KUSI, though I did not hear this particular segment (yeah, I was at Cox Arena for The Rock Church Easter service), for "allowing" freedom of speech for their newscasters... what a novel idea? This writer sure used his/her freedom to write.
The vast majority of Americans profess a faith in God and many actually experience a "personal relationship" with Him. I hope that someday this writer will choose to investigate the Truth and experience this "God who loves everybody".
By the way, separation of church and state was originally designed to protect the church from the control of the state, not the way people have twisted it around these days.
Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell and The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel are good places to investigate "evidence" but the Bible is the best source!
Thanks for hearing me out!
Karen Vande Vegte
Posted by Karen Vande Vegte | April 19, 2007 9:42 PM
Posted on April 19, 2007 21:42
Hello Karen, thanks for your letter. Actually no, I was in a good mood on the morning of that writing. Many people read my screeds and think that I'm a bitter angry man, especially if I take a position opposite theirs, but really, I just like my writing to have energy. I'm not in the least bit offended or agitated by Doug Curlee or KUSI.
Ok so first of all, regarding your remark that I should have studied Catholicism before attacking it, um I did: Having been raised a Catholic, having gone to church multiple times, having been baptized and communionized, having gone to Religious Instruction, having been a member of CYO, having many Catholic and Christian friends and family, and having read and followed anything remote religious in the news and still do, I would say that I have studied this faith quite well thank you.
And while you are right that separation of church and state was designed to protect the church from control by the state, the part you don't seem to understand is that "the church" can be ANY religion.
If you remember, it all began after "King James I had established the Anglican Church as the Church of England, and openly persecuted separatists." (from Bible.org)
Christians left the oppressive rule of James I because he would not allow them to worship anything but the state sanctioned religion -- the majority religion.
Indeed, the whole point of keeping the church and state separate is to keep that situation from happening again, to keep the state from showing bias to any one religion so that ALL religions may operate freely and openly and equally.
Same is true with the Church and Media. I have no problem with journalists having a faith, but they should keep that faith separate from their reportage just as they should keep their political bias (re: Republican vs. Democrat) apart as well. We're talking straight news here of course, not editorial programs like The O'Reilly Factor, The View, or Sordid Tales, which can and should bring to the discussion whatever religiously and politically skewed position they maintain.
Thanks for writing.
Ed
Posted by edwin decker | April 19, 2007 9:47 PM
Posted on April 19, 2007 21:47
Today I found the April 18th issue of San Diego City Beat discarded over the front gate of our office. This is the first time I have ever read your publication. I must say with absolution that it will also be the last.
In reference to ‘KUSI is for Khrist’ your opinion is as valuable to you. Mine is to me so I thought I would share it. The KUSI News Team seems to be on the right track. Our country was founded on Christian principles. Did you know that the early leaders of the United States of America were required to be Christians? Separation of church and state is against the constitution and its writers. Whether you agree or not, believe or not, is up to you but you were very offensive to anyone who believes. I would consider this blasphemous as most believers would.
Almost as horrendous was you saying that Fox News should not have displayed the American flag! So you are not a Christian. Apparently you are not an American either. I will pray for you
Posted by cindy hamilton | April 20, 2007 10:24 AM
Posted on April 20, 2007 10:24
I find it interesting when you say "the early leaders of the United States of America were required to be Christians" as if it's a good thing.
EJD
Posted by edwin decker | April 20, 2007 10:27 AM
Posted on April 20, 2007 10:27
It's been sitting around for two months, and I apologize for the long delay
in my thanks, but thank you just the same. As at least three recent books have
pointed out, religion is bad for people. The First Amendment separates
government and religion, with its combined free exercise and establishment clause.
Radio and TV stations have the right to be opinionated, but they have the duty
(perhaps a legal one under the terms of their licenses) to be honest about it.
Sneaking religion in and reporting reigious doctrine as if it were fact shirks
this duty, and you have called the KUSI management on it. Good for you. Hope
the hate mail has diminshed by now. Thanks again.
Cordially,
William B. Lindley
Posted by William B. Lindley | June 18, 2007 9:14 PM
Posted on June 18, 2007 21:14