James Dobson and the "Liberal Media"

A few weeks ago I was flipping through stations on the AM dial trying to find a traffic report, and I stumbled onto Focus on the Family and decided to hang out and listen for a short time.

When I was a teenager, I read one of Dr. Dobson's books on self-esteem and found it helpful. The evangelical Christian family I lived with for some time in college used to listen to the show regularly and were big fans. At that time (in the 80's), as far as I know, Focus on the Family had yet to become a big player in the political movement known as the Religious Right, but as time has gone on they've become more and more political, and more and more influential.

Now, I have never understood how Christians could support a political party which is firmly on the side of the rich, and which has embraced war as a first resort. It goes so far against what I saw in the person of Jesus that it has always been unfathomable to me. It has seemed obvious to me for some time that the Republican party has used the issues of abortion and homosexuality to motivate people to vote--when it was clear to me that the Republican party is about nothing except greed, and pushing conservative economic policies that hurt almost everyone except the richest of the rich--and that they used these hot-button issues to win elections, not because they care about the issues, but because using them is effective. How else are you going to get people to vote against their best interests? I mean, if you're rich and your daughter gets knocked up, no problemo! Europe is but a plane ride away.

At any rate, on this particular day Dr. Dobson was complaining about how the press had handled a remark he'd made about Fred Thompson. He said that he'd commented that he didn't know anything about Fred Thompson's religious views, but that if he wasn't a Christian it would cost him some votes. Yet he was quoted as saying that he didn't think that Fred Thompson was a Christian. He felt that this was a total misrepresentation of what he'd said.

Now, in this country, it is clear that people are more comfortable voting for a person of the Christian faith. Whether you want that to be true or not, it is clearly true. The Christian religion is the dominant religion, and most Americans believe in some sort of God. It seems pretty clear that Americans want to know that their leaders have some sort of a moral compass. So I don't think it was crazy for him to say what he said that he said. I could have said the same thing--not with the same kind of agenda behind it, granted--but I think that on the surface it's true. If you don't profess the Christian faith, the fact is that it will cost you at the ballot box.

What Dobson said about this incident seemed totally reasonable at first. He felt like you couldn't trust the media to tell the truth. That he'd seen it time and time again. Now, I have similar feelings about the mainstream media. I do not feel like we can trust the media to tell us the truth about almost any issue of real importance. The news is more about grabbing ratings and making money than it is about educating the public about the issues of our day. But then he starting ranting about the "Liberal Media." Jim, Jim, Jim. I could only shake my head.

I think that most of us on the left already understand how biased the media is--and certainly not in a left-liberal-leaning way. But wouldn't it be great if those on the right could understand too that one of the problems we both have is the corporate media--a media that has no dedication to truth in any form. Perhaps if we had a media that at least aimed for objectivity we could start to feel like we could talk to each other again. Maybe not. But maybe. I sure wish we could try it out and see.

According to the Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, in 2006 the U.S. tied for 53rd in the world with Botswana, Croatia, and Tonga. The founders of our country knew that a free press was critical to having a functioning democracy, which is why the press is the only industry expressly protected in the Bill of Rights. It's nothing short of tragic that things are where they are today. But listening to Dr. Dobson--for a moment at least--gave me hope (maybe a false one, but a strange kind of wild hope nonetheless) that perhaps somehow we could find common cause even with those who don't agree with us on all the issues.

Links:
Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006
Dobson: I didn't disparage Fred Thompson's faith