Wilson County’s God and Country day is Sunday, August 17, 2008. I first became aware of it about two weeks ago, and after a little discussion within the Secular Life group, we decided that our best approach would be to ask for fair treatment in regard to the discount offered to church-going patrons, and attend the event in order to offer our support of the troops without religious strings attached.
It’s been amazing how strong the reaction has been over this event. It has garnered interest from surrounding atheist, secular, and constitutional groups, as well as a bit of outrage from local Christians. What we all thought would be a small, quiet, display of support has turned into something much larger.
What has disappointed me, and I think highlighted a great problem in our culture, is the media coverage. All three local news networks covered the event, as well as the Tennessean. None of the television news coverage even made an attempt at even handed coverage. Instead, they portrayed the issue as one of “out of state” atheist activists trying to create controversy over the matter of $2. Despite the fact that all three outlets contacted members of our groups, and were provided with details about our concerns and grievances, they categorically chose to go with a shallow, one sided story, filled with charged language intended to create animosity towards seculars.
The Tennessean was the only news outlet to provide an even handed summary. Not only did they speak to Thaddeus Schwartz, but they actually communicated his position. The contrast was clear in the reader comments to the story. Viewer comments from the television coverage was almost exclusively vitriolic, and centered mostly around people that believed out of state activists were telling them they can’t pray to their god. While there was some of that from the Tennessean readers, there were considerably more people engaging in debate over the actual issues. While I may not agree with what many have to say about it, I am at least happy that they were made aware of the true problem.
I suppose it serves to illustrate the state of television journalism today. I can’t help but feel sorrow, as our local news outlets become carbon copies of Fox News, spewing out fabricated controversy, and overtly opinionated coverage.
Bob Smietana of the Tennessean was responsible for our only fair coverage this week, I’d like to extend my appreciation to him. I was in personal contact with the office of Dennis Ferrier of WSMV news, and can say that what he presented as news was a collection of deliberate slanting, and outright lies. I would ecourage everyone to email both of these reporters, and let them know what you thought of their coverage.
In the lead up to the big day, I want to thank the many people who have spoken up in our support, and express my gratitude to everyone that plans to join us tomorrow. I’d also like to speak to those who might disagree with our viewpoint, or believe that our intention is to force them to change their way of life.
We have no interest in telling you what you can believe, or when and where you can pray. We do not belief in dogma, which means that we do not believe in compulsory thinking. What we really want is very simple; we want the respect and considerations afforded to members of the Christian majority in our society. We want people to realize that secular people make up a larger portion of their communities than they realize, and that we are not amoral villains bent on destroying your children.
I can’t help but believe that if people understood us better, there would be so much less controversy. We are all becoming victims of a sensationalist media storm, who’s only desire is to generate argument to sell advertizing dollars.
