The mainstream media helps to supply the necessary checks and balances on which democratic society has come to depend. But can we really depend upon this media?
• [Peter] Sissons [“One of Britain’s most senior news broadcasters”] made headlines in January when he attacked the BBC for its “institutional” leftwing bias that he said was “written into its DNA.” Sissons, whose memoirs are being published in a series by the right-of-centre Daily Mail newspaper, said that at the BBC, “Islam must not be offended at any price, although Christians are fair game because they do nothing about it if they are offended.”
Clearly, those who show outrage and offense will be favored, while those who don’t are “fair game.” With such rules of engagement, can BBC and other mainstream media sources be trusted?
• …the BBC itself has admitted its anti-Christian bias. In a leaked internal memo in 2006, the BBC admitted to a marked bias against Christianity and a strong inclination to pro-Muslim reporting. The Daily Mail reported on a secret meeting of BBC executives who were said to be frustrated by the corporation’s commitment to “political correctness” at the expense of journalistic integrity and objectivity. At that time, Andrew Marr, the BBC’s former chief political correspondent, said, “The BBC is not impartial or neutral … It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias.”
I wonder how endemic this problem is within mainstream media? From where I sit, the media seems to be soaked in anti-Christian bias. And what might be the effect of this bias on society, besides breeding cynicism? Judging from the major tectonic worldview shifts of the last few decades, the impact seems to be profound. How will this shift affect the church and Christianity? It doesn’t seem that it could possibly have a benign impact. In fact, from what I’ve observed these days, most Christians feel marginalized, even ashamed to make any kind of public gesture that might be connected with their Christian faith.
Lastly, we are left with the question, “What should we do when our faith is consistently maligned by the media?” Sisson’s perception that “Christians are fair game because they do nothing about it if they are offended” seems to be on-the-money. Moreover, the implications of this systematic attack on the Christian faith seem to be escalating. With the proliferation of unbalanced—and unanswered—charges that we Christians are now “hate-mongers” and “homophobes,” there has arisen a whole chorus of outcries meant to silence even the few of us who remain vocal in the public arena.
Let us take a look at what the Apostle Peter has written about our first line of defense:
• For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. (1 Peter 2:15)
However, this strategy doesn’t preclude the use of a verbal defense. Knowing that Haman was putting the finishing touches on his plan for the destruction of the Jews, the Jewish Queen Esther risked her life to come before her husband and king:
• "If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life--this is my petition. And spare my people--this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king." (Esther 7:3-4)
It was this petition, by the grace of God, that saved the Jewish people. Perhaps it is time for us to speak up as well!
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