ABC: Anything But Conservative
The people of the United States are not being very well represented by their broadcast and cable news networks. Except for Fox News, all of the other major television news operations are decidedly liberal, even though the country is considered to be center-right politically. While there is a Republican in the White House and the party controls most state legislatures, the Congress and has 33 Governors, most of the mainstream news media is in lockstep with the opposition party, the liberal Democrats.
There is no better example of liberal media bias today than ABC, the television network owned by the Walt Disney Company, the second largest media conglomerate in the world. The network is filled with liberal reporters and anchors and offers insufferable programs like "The View", a morning "news" program geared to women. The hosts on the program are all liberal, except for one token moderate. The format is either a liberal love fest with a Hollywood or media star or an attack on conservatism.
On Feb. 13, the program was even nastier than normal. On the topic of Vice President Mike Pence's Christian faith, host Sunny Hosting said, "I don't know that I want my vice president...speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him." Co-host Joy Behar added an even more insulting comment, claiming, "It's one thing to talk to Jesus. It's another thing when Jesus talks to you. That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct, hearing voices."
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No show on ABC would have mocked the religious faith of a devout Muslim, but they felt it was acceptable to ridicule a fine Christian such as Mike Pence. These comments were so outrageous that the watchdog group Media Research Center launched a protest. Within days, over 30,000 calls were made to the network demanding an apology.
Not surprisingly, ABC ignored the outraged pleas of Christians and offered no official statement and certainly did not make an apology. A few days later Behar ludicrously maintained that the comments were "a joke." For Christians, this type of treatment is not a joking matter, for it happens all too often. Sadly, the blasphemous remarks are typical of the trash uttered by hosts on "The View" on a regular basis.
The anti-Christian bigotry was also not well received by the target, Vice President Pence. In an appearance on C-SPAN, Pence said, "To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong." He continued, "It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance."
For Pence, his Christianity is the most important part of his life. Amazingly, Behar is also a Christian, but must feel it is acceptable to mock others who share her faith. Behar has a history of crude comments, so her response is understandable, as is the non-response from ABC.
It is clear the network does not care about Christians or conservatives. Not only has there been no apology, but the network has done nothing to discipline Behar or Hostin.
This is the same network that features George Stephanopoulos, a former top Bill Clinton operative, as its premier political correspondent. He is also co-host of "Good Morning America" and is host of "This Week", their Sunday morning program.
No wonder the ratings for all of these programs has dropped in recent years as conservatives have no reason to watch liberal hosts promoting Democrats and grilling conservative Republicans.
To make matters worse, ABC just announced that Trump hating liberal actor Alec Baldwin will soon start hosting a new Sunday interview show on the network. Baldwin has been badly impersonating the President for Saturday Night Live since October of 2016 and seems to relish the opportunity to criticize him in public or on social media. Surely, the 63 million people who voted for President Trump in the last election will not be watching Baldwin on Sundays.
It would seem that any news network would strive for balance to attract all types of viewers. Instead, ABC is apparently trying to insult conservative viewers on a regular basis.
The calls to ABC are a good start, but, to be truly effective, conservatives need to launch an official boycott of the network's advertisers and the Walt Disney resorts. Financial pressure is the only thing that gets the attention of these media conglomerates. While insulting conservatives may seem to be the right thing to do ideologically for the liberal network news bosses, if it starts hurting them financially, they will finally start to think twice about their strategy.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award winning program, "Ringside Politics," airs locally at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and at 10:00 p.m. Sundays on PBS affiliate WLAE-TV, Channel 32, and from 7-11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990-AM & www.Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on www.JeffCrouere.com. For more information, email him at [email protected]
