Static over TV issue

If you have not already done so, I highly recommend that you read Joe

Bell’s column from Thursday. If necessary, find it online.

It is important reading because it is a perfect example of the

situational ethics supported by those to the left of the political

spectrum.

Bell broke the column into two, not-unrelated discussions. His

opinion on the first subject, the recall of Coast Community College

District trustee Armando Ruiz is one with which I agree. Ruiz should

get the boot.

That discussion devolved into whether local public station KOCE-TV

should be sold to Daystar, a television network owned by “the

fundamentalist Word of God Church” based in Dallas.

It is first important to note that I am neither a fundamentalist

Christian nor a TV viewer. My religious beliefs are my own business,

and I have not watched television in more than nine years, although

after a Cadillac margarita at Mi Casa, I may admit to peeking at an

Angels game from time to time but turning off the tube during the

commercials.

So, I don’t have a stake in the church or in the TV content.

But I do have a stake in keeping people and discussions honest,

and it is here that I have an issue with Bell’s position.

Daystar and the church are being set up as unworthy suitors of the

station simply because they are of a denomination that practices a

style of religion that he finds offensive.

In the column, Bell calls the folks who would run KOCE “Christian

muscle men.”

Sorry, but I have an issue with that. I also have an issue with

the notion that the constant begging for dollars that would

undoubtedly come with Daystar programming is somehow worse than the

garbage that is already on nearly every other channel.

Is some sorry-looking, overly made-up, perfectly coiffed preacher

really more dangerous than Nicolette Sheridan removing her clothes

and seducing a professional football player in a commercial just

before a nationally televised game that kids were watching?

Is it worse than “Stacked,” which stars Pamela Anderson’s breasts?

Is it worse than any soap opera?

Is it worse than any insipid reality show, which is often more

scripted than some scripted shows?

Is it worse than 99% of the commercials on TV, the ones, in

particular, that manipulate small children into believing that

certain very sugary, fatty and salty foods are good for them?

To Bell, and to those on the left whose knee-jerk reaction to any

religious involvement in anything, it is. All of this trash on the

public airwaves, the phrase they trot out when they have to play

their part as defenders of the public good, gets the Good

Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

To the left, the vacuous, mind-numbing rot on TV is OK because

it’s what they like. It’s OK because they know what is good for you.

They have decided that you don’t have the intellect to decide for

yourself.

To these people, God is a four-letter word. It doesn’t matter that

there actually may be a sizable number of people locally who like to

watch religious programming and who don’t mind giving some of their

money to them.

And for what it’s worth, that audience is here. I know they’re

here because the folks at Daystar are not stupid. They’ve done their

homework, and they know that there are enough suckers around here to

buy what they’re selling. They would not make this investment without

some reasonable assurance that they were going to get a good return

on it.

And I’ll say this about religious programming: Even a simple mind

understands that all they want is our money. That’s honest compared

with the attempts at disgusting manipulation and hidden agendas

offered by corporate America every minute of every day on every other

channel.

But that’s how it works on the left. Today they support free

speech. Tomorrow, they support free speech as long as it’s something

that fits their agenda; an agenda that changes as fast as the

channels on a 52-inch plasma TV with picture-in-picture, zoom,

instant replay and surround sound.

I’m putting myself in the uncomfortable position of having to

defend TV programming I find repulsive. But compared with its

competition, there is no argument.

Personally, I don’t care what KOCE becomes or what is shown on it.

What I do care about is hypocrisy. And if we’re not going to allow

a religious network to operate at KOCE because we’re afraid we’re all

going to speak in tongues in a matter of hours, then we’d better be

fully prepared to explain how Paris Hilton got her own show.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(714) 966-4664 or send story ideas to [email protected].

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