Tuesday, May 17, 2005

700 Club or local news? From the "Darts and Laurels" column of this month's Columbia Journalism Review: DART to WREG, in Memphis, Tennessee, for less-than-divine journalism. Two weeks after the revelation by the city's bachelor mayor, Willie Herenton, that he was the father of a four-month-old boy, the child's mother, Claudine Marsh, granted an exclusive interview to the station's Andy Wise. The reason the journalist had been so blessed, he explained to viewers, was that "she and I have a bond ... We both believe in Jesus Christ." As Marsh's story story proceeded to be told -- told, Wise reported, because "God told her to" reveal it -- Wise seemed to be sending a sign to the mayor to do the right thing: "A family," he intoned, "should be a mother, father, and son." For his final lesson, Wise invoked the biblical advice to sinners against casting the first stone. As my friend Eric said, they're like cicadas. They come out in full force every so often to plague us all. 11:17:58 PM    comment []

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