Orwellian.

Wow. Remember when there used to be such a thing as the "liberal media"?

Shit, today I'd be grateful for an unbiased media, not controlled by conservative corporations with their noses shoved up the Republican Party's asshole.

Last night, 60 Minutes aired a report on the politically-motivated prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, exposing the dirty little fingers of Karl Rove in this operation.

However, viewers in North Alabama didn't get to see the Siegelman story on 60 Minutes. Why? Well, coincidentally enough, WHNT-19, the CBS affiliate in Huntsville, just happened to be off the air for 12 of the 13 minutes of the Siegelman story. How convenient.

Hmm. On the screen, in place of the 60 Minutes report, WHNT placed this notice:

We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring ‘The Prosecution of Don Siegelman.’ It was a technical problem with CBS out of New York.

Well, nobody understands technical difficulties more than me, so end of story, right? Not so fast. An intrepid blogger named Scott Horton contacted CBS headquarters in New York, who told him this:

There is no delicate way to put this: the WHNT claim is not true. There were no transmission difficulties. The problems were peculiar to Channel 19, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters.” I was told that the decision to blacken screens across Northern Alabama “could only have been an editorial call."

Quickly, WHNT changed their story, saying that the technical problem had been on their end, with one of their satellite receivers, and not at the New York end.

Upon investigation, WHNT has learned that the satellite receiver that allows us to receive programming from CBS failed. The problem was on our end, not the network's.

WHNT rebroadcast the Siegelman segment during their local news last night, and also prominently posted the complete report on their website.

Again, end of story, right?

No, not necessarily. Even if you take WHNT's explanation at face value (which I have trouble) doing, and give them the benefit of the doubt that it was in fact technical difficulties, and give them credit for rebroadcasting the segment on-air and on their website, there's still the troubling matter of this:

Alabama GOP responds to 60 Minutes Report

This press release from the Alabama Republican Party is linked from WHNT's front page. No explanation, no editorial analysis, no context. WHNT is treating the 60 Minutes report as if it is one side of a debate, rather than an unbiased piece of reporting from the station's parent network.

Indeed, one of the main witnesses interviewed in the report was former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods. Not only is Woods a Republican, he's also co-chair of the McCain for President committee, in addition to being the godfather of one of John McCain's children!!! Not exactly a screaming liberal, and yet he said:

I personally believe that what happened here is that they targeted Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square. This was a Republican state and he was the one Democrat they could never get rid of.

By allowing the Alabama GOP to respond with ridiculous talking points, WHNT legitimizes their argument. There are not necessarily "two sides to every story." Sometimes, there are the facts, and then there is everything else.

But, WHNT is controlled by "Oak Hill Partners" and the Bass family, who are known for giving large amounts of cash to Republican candidates. So none of this should surprise us, really.

The days of being able to trust ANYTHING from the mainstream media are over. They are all whores to their corporate masters, and the editorial decisions are made based on politics and greed.

G-d and Football, Redux

So, my comments regarding the Hoover High School football team, and their Baptist chaplain, were published in today's Federation Update. (See my previous post for the original comment.)

Here's the BJF's response:

RESPONSE TO ERIC'S LETTER In response to Eric's letter, the BJF contacted a Jefferson County school administrator familiar with such issues who then talked with his own athletic director about the Hoover situation. Both men have many years of experience in Alabama public schools. They, too, questioned the Hoover situation. Said the school official, a devout Christian himself, "If a man of the cloth is there only to encourage, support, and talk about generic ethical or motivational issues, the school could probably justify this. Doing this in the name of any one particular religion or religious leader might cause concerns among those of different faiths.? The school official felt that while the practice of having a volunteer chaplain share Christian-based theological exhortations to motivate the team might technically be legal, "in a public school setting there is an obligation to avoid any semblance of promoting any one particular religious affiliation."

Not a bad reply. It's a sad but true fact that in Alabama, it's always a pleasant surprise to hear public officials acknowledge that religion should be kept out of classrooms, courtrooms, locker rooms. (Of course, this particular public official didn't have the chutzpah to identify himself by name, unfortunately.)

I hope that the publicity shined on Hoover High via "Two-A-Days" brings pressure on them to kick Rev. Slay out of the locker room. I'll say it again: he doesn't belong there.

G-d and Football

Hoover High School, in suburban Birmingham, has gained a little bit of national notoriety this fall, thanks to MTV featuring the Hoover football team in the reality series "Two-A-Days."

A few minor controversies have arisen over MTV's portrayal of the Hoover team, as MTV lives up to their usual standards -- cutting and pasting dialog and filmed scenes into segments that play up conflict and drama. After all, MTV's job isn't to present accurate information, but rather to entertain the viewer and sell commercial space to advertisers.

Hoover's team chaplain, Rev. Terry Slay, has been criticized -- and praised -- for framing football games in a theological context. He portrays Hoover's games as battles between good and evil; sort of odd to depict an opposing team of teenage football players as evil, isn't it?

Yet in all this babble about Rev. Slay, the most important question has been largely unasked: Why does Hoover High School have a team chaplain? Look, I went to a Catholic high school -- so of course our school pastor prayed with the team before games. But why does a public high school have scripture and prayer in the locker room??

Even our own Jewish community's Federation Update seemed to ignore this issue when they linked to a Birmingham News article about the Slay controversy on Sunday:

"Hoover High School is ranked the top high school football team in the country. Coach Rush Propst has developed a superior program which has garnered the suburban Birmingham school national attention. MTV is running a 'reality series' on the Hoover Buccaneers based on last season. The team chaplain and the fervent religious message he preaches linking football and God have become topics of controversy. In a front-page story Saturday, the Birmingham News reported, 'Under the hot glare of TV lights, Hoover High School football chaplain Terry Slay has stoked locker room emotions, as depicted in the weekly MTV show 'Two- A-Days,' and has taken some heat for his theological interpretation of gridiron life.'" AL.com link: "Bucs chaplain's MTV image lauded and lambasted"

In response to Update not mentioning the "team chaplain at a public school" issue, I just emailed this comment to the Federation:

"In Sunday's update, a link was provided to a "Birmingham News" story about the Hoover High School football team's chaplain, and the notoriety he's gained via the MTV program 'Two-A-Days.' The 'News' article mentions that team chaplain Terry Slay has garnered both criticism and praise for his depictions of football contests in theological terms, often referring to the opposing team as 'the enemy.' However, the more important question, ignored by both Update and the 'News,' is this: why does Hoover High School, a public school, have a team chaplain at all? And, why do they have such an obviously Christian chaplain, who quotes passages from the gospel of Luke as motivational messages? It is true that Rev. Slay is not paid by the Hoover school system -- he performs chaplaincy duties for the team as a volunteer. Still, paid or not, doesn't this seem to be an implicit endorsement of Christianity, and particularly of the Baptist variety, by Hoover High School?? (Slay is a youth pastor at Hunter Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.) What about players on the team who don't subscribe to Slay's beliefs? What about the players who may be Protestant Christian, but of a different denomination? What about players who are Catholic, or Mormon, or Jewish, or who choose not to be religious at all? Is it fair to make them listen to Rev. Slay's exhortations about "thieves" and "enemies"? Is it fair to make them bow their heads in prayer before each game? Should they have to excuse themselves from the room, making their private beliefs (or lack thereof) known to all, causing a distraction and weakening the team unity that's so crucial in game like football? Remember, these kids didn't sign up for an after-school Bible Study club -- they signed up to play football. So, although I completely disagree with Rev. Slay's depiction of football in theological terms, and I don't believe for a moment that G-d cares who wins a high school football game, that's not the most important issue here. I wish that both the 'Birmingham News' and Federation Update had focused attention on the real issue -- Rev. Slay's mere presence in the locker room. He doesn't belong there.