A story, at the top of the 6 PM newscast on WBNS 10TV in Columbus, about a complaint over a Jesus portrait hanging in an Ohio middle school hit all the false talking points over religious symbols in a public school. The report missed or ignored an opportunity to give accurate information on the 1st amendment and instead spent a majority of time trying to defend an obvious illegal act.
WBNS 10TV is the top ranked news station in Columbus Ohio. It’s owned by the company that also owns the only print newspaper in town, The Columbus Dispatch. 10TV gave 3 minutes at the top of their premiere 6 PM newscast, on Monday 01/07, about a complaint lodged against a portrait of Jesus hanging in the public area of the middle school in Jackson Ohio. Chuck Strickler, who is also an anchor at the station was the reporter on the story. The fact they gave the story 3 minutes of time on the primary newscast and had one of their veteran anchor/reporters doing the story shows how important 10TV believed the story to be.
Tag: civil rights
On my Doug’s Views blog I write about how a White House petition to legally label the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group is the wrong way to deal with people you don’t like. Rights shouldn’t be put to a popular vote.
In the news recently was a press release from American Atheists announcing they had appealed a court case to the US Supreme Court. The case, American Atheists, Inc. v. Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, is against a Kentucky law that would require state training materials to proclaim a reliance on God for protection of the state. One response I read about the appeal on an e-mail list I’m on wondered why American Atheists would waste time on such a case that was, in their view, giving lip service to believers. Unfortunately, many believers live for such lip service so those of us who want to protect the separation of church and state have to file law suits against what on the surface looks like minor offenses.
Here is some detail on the case American Atheists, Inc. v. Kentucky Office of Homeland Security:
I’ve written before about the Values Voters Summit, which is sponsored by the hate group Family Research Council (FRC). I really don’t want to waste energy on their hate but I feel an informed voter is a defender of democracy and hate groups like FRC shouldn’t be allowed to fly under the radar. FRC isn’t just a group with different ideas, their ideas are the polar opposite of this country’s values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don’t like to write these strong words but the Family Research Council’s goals are no different than the goals of the Taliban in Afghanistan. People need to know the truth and need to know about the people who consort with the kind of sedition the FRC calls for in their words and deeds. Voters need to know that people like Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan believes that one’s Christian religious beliefs should trump the US Constitution.