Friday, October 28, 2005

Unbelievable

So, I sat down tonight to watch Tom Brokaw's report entitled In God They Trust and instead found a special program sponsored by the Billy Graham Foundation. That's right...The Billy Graham Foundation bought out the hour Tom Brokaw's story was supposed to air. They paid off the TV station. I have now lost all respect for my local NBC affiliate. The only reasons to preempt a news story like the one supposed to air are sporting events, breaking world news, or an address from the President. Unbelievable...Simply Unbelievable.

6 comments:

*jcg said...

Are you JOKING?!

Seriously, you must be joking.

Alan Bancroft said...

No joking. The Brokaw special didn't air until 3:30 a.m. Friday night/Saturday morning. I set my VCR to tape it. It was actually a really good special. Brokaw allowed self-titled Evangelicals to speak for themselves. The Minister who was the main focus said some pretty silly stuff, but overall, I think it did a good job of accurately portraying the trends of current evangelical churches.

Amy said...

I'm making a pouty face for you. That's just not right.

mark said...

hmm..i understand yall's frustration but hang on a minute..alan, you always were cautioning me about logic..cause and effect..

it seems like we are assuming that Graham bought out that time because he knew Brokaw would be on. Graham has been on the air in various cities in the south for years now. Im with you that if it was intentional, not a great move..

but, as you know, i watched hours and hours of Grahm's services and sermons and read a lot about his ministry for my thesis..Graham is not interested in battling "liberalism" or in this case Brokaw's (questionable I hear) potrayl or evangelicals. He is and has always been primarily interested in personal salvation. While that might be a debatable goal, taking over TV time from Brokaw specifically because Brokaw was going to air a religious show doesnt fit..

I could be wrong, but just seems we should be careful of crucifying someone who while certainly has problems, has done a lot of good..

peace

mark

Alan Bancroft said...

Mark-thanks for the comment. Let me clarify a bit. I didn't want to come across as bashing Billy Graham. I actually have a great deal of respect for him. Talk about integrity. It was actually Franklin Graham who was hosting the special, and to be honest, I didn't watch it, so I can't attest to its content.

I bow to your superior knowledge on Graham's normal M.O. when it comes to engaging with the "liberal" media, and admit that the one to one analysis I provided may not be fair. Now, Friday night at 7:00 on NBC isn't a time slot I watch all that often, so pre-emption may happen more often and I just don't know about it, but it does make one wonder why that special was on that particular night, at that particular time.

All in all, I think my frustration lies not so much with Franklin Graham, but with the network affiliate in question. This was a special that they had advertised for at least a week. Maybe they didn't find out about the pre-emption until a day or two before. Maybe it was just an oversight on someone's part. I was just frustrated that a special that I think sought to be fair in it's coverage of such a relevant topic was bumped for a program that only presented one side of the issues at hand (again, I only watched the first 15 minutes, but I doubt there was anyone on screen who presented challenges to Evangelical Christianity).

Push back, brother.

-Alan

mark said...

cool..cool..well franklin graham, now he's a different story..lol

but, yeah, the Graham association has been renting out the friday night slot for years in the south. For some reason, thats usually the night they choose...

I can understand the frustration with the station..i mean, there have been times i was all ready to watch wrestling in atlanta and then UPN freakin pre-empted it with a Hawks game..who cares about the Hawks?? and then of course there used to be that one time a year that USA pre-empted RAW for a dog show..geez..

i get your frustration..im just thinking that it probably wasnt an attempt to keep that particular show off the air..franklin's a different animal but the big dogs at the association are still all Billy's guys..

peace brother..

mark