When
Hate Masquerades
as Entertainment
As radio and TV’s family-oriented programming became the victim of low ratings and increasing competition, producers looked for new ways to make money.
Media research pointed to sensationalized TV and radio popularized by tabloids. No matter how grotesque the topic, one thing was certain: there were millions to be made from everyday folk seeking a "turn-on" by demagogic guests espousing hatred and bigotry. Producers began seeking topics and guests to excite and incite audiences. The race was on to see what new heights of human cruelty could be reached in the ratings wars. The bottomline: to make money.
Finding topics and guests meant searching supremacist closets for skeletons of the United States’ evil racial history. Success meant turning viewing audiences into an uncontrolled hate group.
The zenith of these efforts came when The Jerry Springer Show, where topics take a backseat to on-air fighting and hate rhetoric, overtook Oprah's Angel Network in the ratings. Just as the crowds yelled at the trial of Jesus, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Mr. Springer’s audiences chant in unison, "Go Jerry! Go Jerry!"
A network of hate has formed a chain of affiliates that has spread a spiritual cancer into televisions and radios throughout our nation. Daily rebroadcasts and videotaping assure as many as listeners and viewers possible are being contaminated with the hate virus.
From daytime to primetime, from sunrise to sign off, media outlets pedal hate. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, gay bashers and immigrant bashers, have gained access to the nation’s households. They are even presented as legitimate spokespeople for one point of view. The result of their growing media access and the legitimizing of their hate rhetoric is to stir people to act on the hate. The headlines report these actions:
All these are acts committed by people who learned to hate or became anesthesized to hate by radio and televsion shows. The smorgasbord of hate that fills the airways is becoming the capstone of a nation that’s foundation is built on the richness and diversity of its people -- a people born with the promise and hope of a Constitution that "endows the people with certain inalienable rights, among them freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
How can hate media be stopped? How can media consumers, like you and me, monitor and document the effect these shows have?
We can and we must hold station owners, producers and advertizing sponsors accountable for the content of the shows and the use of hate media to sell products. We must use the power of our discipleship in Christ Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Our United Methodist connectional faith community has the God-given power and the authority of spiritual and moral persuasion to say to stations and advertizers: If you continue to put hate on the air, we will boycott your stations. We will refuse to buy your products.
Paraphrasing the words of Christ, we can say:
You have turned God's house into a den of hate mongers, and it shall continue no more, forever.
The Rev Bernard Keels in pastor of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Md. He is a former district superintendent in Baltimore-Washington Conference. Mr. Keels does commentary on and is former host of Black Journey, a program on WBAL-AM radio, and Taking It to the Streets, on WIYY-FM, both in Baltimore.