Once Again: What Liberal Media?

One of the questions I’ve been asked in the last month more than once revolves around whether or not all Christians are right-wing jackasses, and if not, why don’t we ever hear anything about the rest of them?

The answer to part one is, of course, no. The answer to part II is a bit trickier. I think there is a strong tendency (which I consider both admirable and naive) amongst many religious progressives to not want to politicize their religion. There is also a tendency, not shared by many of their conservative counterparts, to wish for a politically inclusive Christianity, which effectively means not engaging the right, because that’ll get quite divisive right quick.

Of course, what some religious progressives are realizing is that they simply can’t have both the kinds of inclusivity they want. If they want to be serious about reaching out to gays and lesbians and maintaining a kind of political detante with the conservative Christian movement, well, they’re likely to fail. As a non-Christian myself, I don’t feel it’s my place to give unsolicited advice about which direction they should go. Obviously, for politically tactical and substantive reasons, I’m hopeful they choose the former over the latter.

To my delight, the United Church of Christ has made a decision to follow that route. I have no doubt they do this with open eyes; the Christian right are feeling their oats right now and would no doubt launch some sort of counterattack. Political pluralism amongst Protestantism is an enemy from within for these people, and a potentially dangerous one at that.

The UCC has prepared an ad to demonstrate its inclusivity. See the ad here. (link via Josh Marshall who has excellent commentary you’ve probably already read). It’s CBS and NBC who are, apparently, the enemies of religious progressivism. The explanation from CBS is so feeble and pathetic it has to be seen to be believed:

“Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations,” reads an explanation from CBS, “and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks.”

First of all, it’s worth noting that the ad doesn’t address any the gay marriage debate. It’s not hard to figure out where they probably stand, of course, but the issue isn’t mentioned at all.

At any rate, let’s pretend CBS is using, y’know, an actual principled reason to refuse to run the ad. From their statement, I can only discern two possibilities:

1) CBS won’t run ads in which an organization suggests they have certain characteristics that might make them more desirable than competing organizations for some people.

2) CBS won’t run ads that have a message that might be interpreted as indirectly opposing some pending or recently defeated legislation.

To explain that CBS can’t possibly adhere to either of these policies on a general level would waste your time and insult your intelligence, so I won’t do it. I’ll just point out that this is what all that carping about the liberal media is for–to steal a metaphor from Eric Alterman, it’s about working the ref, and it works. I’ve long suspected the memo flap would result in some serious right-wing nonsense from CBS in the coming months. I can’t say this is related, of course, but as part of the broader trend created by the myth of the liberal media, this is a particularly egregious example of the fruit of that rhetorical strategy. (of course, it’s also a warning shot across the bow for religious progressives).