Two things have truly struck me here :
- The importance of the conservative radio and TV media. The sheer quantity of networks is quite amazing. In Savannah, Georgia we could choose from around 5 or 6 christian radios. On TV, the most ubiquitious networks are Fox News and Headline News: motels, restaurants, coffee shops are often tuned to these networks.
- The hashing out of the very same subjects over and over again. I'll simply give two examples of this :
- Headline News is a conservative Cable news network that has been broadcasting the very same story almost non-stop since we got here two weeks ago: a three year old girl has disappeared in June and the search for her only started 3 weeks later when her mother reported that she was missing. The mother is now under investigation and the family embroglio has only added more morbid suspense to the story which is still unfolding. This story seems to have struck a chord with a certain public eager to hear about bad mothers, poor parenting, pathological liars and bounty hunters.
- The big story on the Christian radios, conservative newspapers and on Fox is that of Obama's record on abortion. I believe that the story was unearthed and thrust in the public eye with a book : The case against Barack Obama by David Freddosso ( read a short review). All the conservatives are very wary of Obama's convictions and policies on the issue of what they have termed "partial birth abortion". This is a procedure used for late-term abortions and some babies have survived. Obama spoke against a bill in the Illinois legislature that would have protected these premature babies. A similar Act was then passed by the US Senate with an anonymous vote. Some conservative commentators paint Obama as a baby killer (Ann Coulter on Fox last night was very vocal about it) and Obama says his position has been misrepresented ( in a very short interview after the Rick Warren event).
These two stories are being repeated over and over again, ad nauseam.
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