Bible Bashing 101: How the Media Controls the Message
By Stephen M Crampton, Esq.
August 17, 2005

(AgapePress) - A group of humanists calling themselves the "Texas Freedom Network" (TFN) recently released a "report" attacking the curriculum of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBCPS). TFN opposes anything remotely connected to the "religious right," including local control of schools, vouchers, and even the National Day of Prayer. It zealously supports such issues as the legalization of same-sex marriage and the teaching of evolution to the exclusion of intelligent design or anything else that would possibly raise doubts about the scientific basis for evolution. That is to say, in the words of TFN itself, it "advances a mainstream agenda." (I have always wondered why one must be left of Josef Stalin before being considered "mainstream" by groups like TFN.)

As is routine for such "mainstream" organizations, when they talk, the "mainstream" media listens. So, TFN's report bashing the Bible curriculum received international attention. The New York Times and USA Today couldn't wait to give it prominent coverage; CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and even the International Herald Tribune and a news outlet in Istanbul, Turkey, ran the story.

But when the NCBCPS issued its own press release a few days later, none of those major media outlets even bothered to call. What happened? Had the story lost all appeal? Was the public suddenly bored of the topic? Certainly the issue had not been resolved; the two organizations were as adverse as ever. But the mainstream media was no longer concerned. And when the media refuses to report it as news, well, it must not be newsworthy.

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