I was stunned and very disappointed to see an article on CNN.com with the blaring headline, “Modern black church shuns King’s message.”
Even more disturbing to me than the headline was the article’s depiction and generalization that I, through my church The Potter’s House of Dallas, had shunned the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message.
The article’s author asserts that “I declined to talk to him” about the subject, which is only partially true. I am sorry if my unavailability has caused him angst. I declined to speak with him because I already had conducted a very lengthy interview with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien on the very same topic for a piece that will air on CNN later this year.
Oddly, my picture was used to drive the article in spite of the fact that I was not interviewed for the story. I feel that this style of journalism is far beneath the standards that I have always known and respected from CNN, and while I traditionally do not respond or reply to such statements as were written, this time was different.
Read it all and follow the link to the piece to which Bishop Jakes is responding.
Bishop Jakes,
Welcome to the modern media! If what you say (or don’t say) doesn’t fit the reporter’s, producer’s, editor’s preconceived notions about what the story is about, it will be twisted to fit those preconceived notions.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
#1 – Yes, the liberal media (which is most all of the media) has a story to tell and they are not going to let mere facts get in their way.
It’s really scary to read a story on a subject where you have personal knowledge of the facts, then think back to some stories that you that you believed when you had no personal knowledge.
Sloppy or slanted journalism, or both. Sad.
w.w.
CNN does serious damage. When I arrived in India a couple of years ago, people asked me about the “big racial problems” we were having in the U.S. I wasn’t aware of any unusual events — no riots, no blatantly biased judicial proceedings in the news, no KKK marches — so I wondered why they asked. The reason: CNN International was running a multi-part series on race relations in the U.S., all bad, of course. In that case, and in this, what CNN says is accepted as “true” by millions of people.
[blockquote] In the final analysis of why people attend church or why they select this church over another one, or follow this minister over that minister, the answer is simple; people go to a church where they feel comfortable, where they feel their needs are being met and where they feel that they are getting assistance with the many issues that confront them in these troubled times. [/blockquote]
I noticed something lacking in this article. I guess he was just on the defensive with the secular press, but he seemed to only address the secular the issues. Maybe he should have added the word “SPIRITUAL†to the phrase above “needs are being met†and say something about preaching the Gospel. Possibly he did but CNN left it out.