Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
In the first century before Christ, a slave named Spartacus led an unsuccessful revolt against Rome. As a warning to other would-be rebels, Roman soldiers crucified 6,000 slaves along the road to Rome. Their bodies were left hanging on crosses for all to see.
The Romans are remembered for their cruelty. But at least they weren’t guilty of the kind of hypocrisy CNN is now engaging in.
As most of you know, CNN recently aired a video showing a ist sniper taking aim and killing an American soldier. The video was a gift from a ist group.
CNN said the network understood that some viewers would be deeply upset. However, CNN’s goal, “as always,” was “to present the unvarnished truth as best we can.”
Is that right? I can hardly wait for CNN to broadcast a videotape showing “the unvarnished truth” about, say, partial-birth abortion.
CNN has forgotten, if it ever knew, that for television, any real truth is impossible. British media critic Malcolm Muggeridge noted that “the one thing television can’t do is express ideas.” By translating life into an image, television “is falsifying life.”
The insurgents could have given CNN films of themselves blowing up Iraqi children or beheading journalists. Instead, they are heard discussing how to avoid killing people. We’re not invited to recall the thousands of s the insurgents have d and ed over the past two years. So much for the “unvarnished truth.”
Finally, and most appalling, CNN deliberately gave aid to the enemy of freedom-loving people everywhere. After all, do they really think Islamic radicals would hand over a videotape that would hurt their own cause? Of course not. They had to know the horrific impact their film would have on the families of servicemen — or upon those considering joining the war against Islamo-fascism: It would have the same impact as the sight of those crucified slaves in ancient Rome. To claim otherwise suggests CNN editors are not playing with a full deck — or are engaging in the rankest hypocrisy.
When we watch television, we need to remember the scriptural call to “test everything.” That certainly applies to network news claiming to give us the truth.
