The Deterioration of the News Media

I have watched with deepening sadness the media's fixation with Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and his sermons. For years I have listened to the Republican Party rail at the bias of the news media. I have heard conservative talk show hosts and politicians talk about the unfair treatment conservative public figures receive at the hands of the liberal, left-wing media. This belief has spawned a whole new news network (Fox) and created media stars out of Bill O'Reilly and Shaun Hannity. I have watched Fox News primarily because I was concerned that the news was not being shown "fair and balanced" on other news outlets. In my mind, they were the corrective for a liberal bias. The news media was out of control. I believe that was a correct concern then - and I believe it is a correct concern now. The story of Jeremiah Wright is a prime example.
I have met Jeremiah Wright (last winter in Minneapolis at the Academy of Homiletics Meeting where he was the Keynote speaker for the Academy). I have heard him preach numerous times on tape, where he is used in many seminaries as a prime example of the black preaching tradition. He is without question a dynamic and powerful speaker (you can hear that even in the clips and snippets that are being aired on the news networks). And, I disagree with much of his theology. Wright is an unabashed liberal in an extremely liberal Protestant denomination (UCC - the United Church of Christ). When he spoke at the Academy, he spoke about and to the liberal members of the gathering. He preaches a strong social gospel message and is a vocal proponent of Black Liberation Theology. I have embraced neither. However, to say that he is out of step with Christianity or that he is saying things that are so offensive that Barrack Obama should distance himself from him and that his judgment as a Presidential candidate is up for grabs is nonsense. What it does confirm is that Obama is a black liberal. Is that news? What it does confirm is that black preachers and black churches still believe that America is a racially prejudiced society and that the only way blacks will ever attain full citizenship and the equality that has been promised but not delivered by the government or the society is if blacks speak out against injustice. Is that news? Wright has said some very stupid things, charging the government for creating HIV as a plague against blacks, for instance. Of course, the government did inject blacks with VD during WWII at Tuskegee and denied it for years. So, as foolish as it sounds, there is precedent for believing it. Do I believe it? No, I think it's stupid. Do I think Wright is an idiot for making the claim. Hmmm. Not in the light of Tuskegee. Is it news to anyone that a black leader thinks that the white establishment would do horrible things to blacks? Wright has lived through the terrible days of the 50's and 60's where lynchings were common and nobody in the community did anything to stop it. If you grew up in that culture and prejudice, you could believe just about anything from those in power against those oppressed.
If Wright had said these things as a stump speech for Obama the media should be all over it. But as a 15 second sound bite from a sermon preached years ago? Is that "fair and balanced"? The media views these kinds of black ethnocentric preaching statements as being out of touch with reality. The reality is that this kind of sermonic activity is done in black pulpits all over the country in both liberal and conservative pulpits. Are they all this extreme? Probably not. Are those sermons filled with similar sentiments? Absolutely. Why? Because the white church pulpits are silent about these issues most of the time. We have left black churches to educate white churches and left them to get themselves out of a social mess that whites created. That's sad. And the weakness of the church today is in no small sense related to the ongoing issue of eleven o'clock still being the most segregated hour in American society. That was sad in the 50's and it is sadder today in the 21st Century.
So, in order to be "fair and balanced" here is what Fox linked their front page story on Wright to today. It is the statement of Trinity Church defending their retiring pastor. It is something you should read.

Chicago, Ill. (March 15, 2008) - “Dr. Wright has preached 207,792 minutes on Sunday for the past 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ. This does not include weekday worship services, revivals and preaching engagements across America and around the globe, to ecumenical and interfaith communities. It is an indictment on Dr. Wright’s ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound bite,” said the Reverend Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.
During the 36-year pastorate of Dr. Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ has grown from 87 to 8,000 members. It is the largest congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC) denomination.
“It saddens me to see news stories reporting such a caricature of a congregation that has been such a blessing to the UCC’s Wider Church mission,” said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, in a released statement. “ … It’s time for us to say ‘No’ to these attacks and declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends.”
Trinity United Church of Christ’s ministry is inclusive and global. The following ministries have been developed under Dr. Wright’s ministerial tutelage for social justice: assisted living facilities for senior citizens, day care for children, pastoral care and counseling, health care, ministries for persons living with HIV/AIDS, hospice training, prison ministry, scholarships for thousands of students to attend historically black colleges, youth ministries, tutorial and computer programs, a church library, domestic violence programs and scholarships and fellowships for women and men attending seminary.
Moss added, “The African American Church was born out of the crucible of slavery and the legacy of prophetic African American preachers since slavery has been and continues to heal broken marginalized victims of social and economic injustices. This is an attack on the legacy of the African American Church which led and continues to lead the fight for human rights in America and around the world.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached the Christian tenet, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Before Dr. King was murdered on April 4, 1968, he preached, “The 11 o’clock hour is the most segregated hour in America.” Forty years later, the African American Church community continues to face bomb threats, death threats, and their ministers’ characters are assassinated because they teach and preach prophetic social concerns for social justice. Sunday is still the most segregated hour in America."