Sorry for the late, late night menu delivery. We have some unsual
Talk to Action items this evening. Not because they were unpopular, but because most of them were posted late, and so most people won't see them 'til tomorrow.
Moiv can almost hear Mark Twain snorting with disgust. She also has the poop on some of the Christian Right anti-abortion figures behind the new South Dakota bill that seems destined to be heard before the Supremes.
Max Blumenthal forsees widening fissures in the Christian Right over the Abramoff scandal. As details of the scandal further emerge, James Dobson doth protest too much alegations of his involvement; the email trail nails Ralph Reed as a liar; and "Lucky Louie" Sheldon seems destined to become better known in scandal than he was as as shady Christian Right lobbyist. And they owe it all to "Casino Jack" Abramoff.
Jonathan Hutson reveals that reports of the demise of televangelist and power broker Pat Roberston, are greatly exaggerated.
Bruce Wilson highlights a case of false balance in reporting, when the Columbia Journalism Review wades into the murky waters of Christian broadcasters seeking to unethically seize low power radio in the U.S.:
what starts out as a pretty solid work of investigative journalism ends with a thud when it falls into the trap of false balance....The exploitation of a significant weakness in the FCC rules to acquire a massive amount of FM spectrum which, in the process, locks out an uncounted number of other potential users - all to simply rebroadcast a biblical drone from Idaho - to me, is immoral and unethical. It's a terrible abuse of what is supposed to be a public resource, to be utilized in the public interest.
Wilson also takes on a guru of the would-be religious left, Michael Lerner.