Classrooms around the country but what has happened in the last 25 years, the 24 7 new cycle that john referred to is it you will then part by the internet when the original book published in 1988 the internet was merely a gleam in the eye but of course, since then it is striving driving the news cycle. We thought it was due for an update we started working on it three years ago and just published in september and we have been delighted by the reception so far. I will share some of the ideas in the book like World News Group does to give you an idea who we are although there was a good job setting be up and also to be clear that my purpose today is not to bash the Mainstream Media. I did not in any way, shape, or form consider the Mainstream Media or what people call the legacy media as the enemy. But i do believe clear in the midst of a pathological media culture. Some of the ideas i share today i hope will allow us to identify some of those and ultimately find a way out of that pathology as a hope for the future. First, a few words, the largest Christian News organization in the country we have a magazine that has 400,000 readers and also a robust presence on the internet between 500,000 and 600,000 visitors per month and 2 million page views. We also started a Radio Program called the world and everything in its. Aid to our Weekend Program and a 30 minute Daily Program of you were used to listening things on christian radio you will discover his is not anything like what is on christian radio is sounds much more earthquake National Public radio they and what you would hear. The cohosts have been doing an excellent job. After the first of the year we will start a new 30 minutes Interview Program that i will host that is not patterned on anything after christian radio but think of charlie rose and you will have more of an idea what were trying to create whatever radio presence. Halls of the world on campus web sites with told range of childrens publications using in the whole school community. I would like to begin sharing that mass media is dominant in our culture today and has a profound impact on the world that we think. The average person will spend 54,000 hours of some form of mass media before their 17th birthday. Compare and contrast to the average young person might spend in church. Every sunday 52 weeks per year for your entire growing up time he will spend less than 1,000 in church. That doesnt necessarily mean you have less or more of an impact but how much time you spend. Some of the time with mass media is passive but these numbers begin to sharpen the time that we spent with these influences. It would be little disingenuous to claim that time has no impact on us whatsoever in fact, Joseph Lieberman who was a conservative a democrat then later independent said more than three decades of research has firmly established Electronic Media has a powerful impulse to ince on the attitudes and behavior of americas children. Is escrow paul the larger as they spent consuming media has grown greater. I dont think we would argue with that. That is one of the hideous we begin to explore in prodigal press how the content of the media shape the way rethink. Also how the media themselves shape the way rethink. Look at content first id like to begin my presentation with content did how much it has changed by saying a way to share the story of a great Christian Newspaper called the New York Times. If you read it today youll be given as christian but it was founded by henry worry mandate presbyterian christians in the 1850s. In the 1870s his star Investigative Reporter and augustus st. Clair went undercover in the abortion facilities. Today you may have heard of froze or okeeffe who have gone undercover with video cameras into planned parenthood to post the videos on the internet. That has been charted the innovative use of social media to do investigative reporting but it was done by the New York Times in the 1870s. Passionately opposed abortion in that editorial and News Coverage to save the practice is ranked and spills to have been in this murder. One person that was exposed spent seven years in prison as a result. They are not alone. Between 1825 in and 1845 as documented in the original version of this book over 100 cities and towns across america had explicitly Christian Newspapers including the boston recorder including a man named to with the lively publication of its era. The york city alone had a paper sack called them explicitly christian. But we know the New York Times is christian and no more. A regular the editorialize is in favor of abortion in samesex marriages and the idea that most evangelical christians find it of foreign. And comparing the tea party with his blood and that even saying that Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the american people. Whether you agree or disagree youd have to agree that calling Tea Party Republicans g hottest one dash g hyades is a tone deaf coming to theological distinctive is we begin to see that religious language newspapers anything that resembles a usage that justin in your terms but others as well as some the first female editor of the times said in my house the times substituted for religion. If it was the absolute truth. So again we see how far it has come a 150 year period that is what has happened as many of their publications it would cause us to be here for days and i am here to talk about the book if we have documented much of this in the book but there has been a lot of cultural and political changes that have taken place over the 150 years. Not a switch that went on or off to cause the Mainstream Media to go to a fundamentally religious view or one that is not religious today but it is a wide for a variety of the fins and changes in our culture that have occurred during that period of time. Some specific offense is the rise of transcendentalism we remember from my School English high school we remember thoreau and emerson in the transcendentalist writers but we forget they were also writes the letters in the Public Square as well. Not the ivory tower theorist for writing in the newspapers of their day. The progressive era ushered in an yellow journalism some call the golden age but the error from which we remember names like Horace Greeley or pulitzer that the prize was named after the end William Randolph hearst whose first newspaper chain in bdm fire is still around today and also by the way of citizen kane one of the great movies of all time but it also attainted hearst John Foster Kane in that movie as a man who was dislocated from his sense of purpose and meaning in his life so much so that he died alone and sad. So we begin to see that as we march through the 20th century all triose covered by the journalist of the day, not just the coverage of a trial but a world view that was on trial and milken made thats clear it was christian inverses progressive as a that was in the dark and not the teacher who was teaching at that time. Then moving forward the whitaker chambers algers his trial that took place around a 1950. If you read with this you know, that trial was not just a trial about whitaker chambers and colleges of but of world views and it hit communism versus the theus dick world views that chambers had come to embrace over the course of his life and what was then a relatively inconsequential backwater newspaper fed is the Washington Post which covered that trial extensively and had its coverage picked up from the country because it was also a trial of new ideals it established the Washington Post as a leading progressive best newspaper of the late 20th century. All of these factors come into creating a media we had today by 1986 husband and wife team along with their collaborator could write a book called the media e. Lee to which they found after Extensive Survey the journalist were well to the left of the public on a wide a range of ideas. Not just the culture war that we think about but also on ideas such as affirmative action era Energy Policy as well. Fastforward 15 years we come to the steady from a professor at virginia tech. He did a survey of wind in 60 newspapers that media tends to operate with a fairly bare range of liberal beliefs. Not only the liberal put the range of contacts to that what they represented a fairly narrow window as well. Also they tended to omit its reasonable and Diverse Voices and highlight the more radical liberal voices. That is a good reason why win that pastor who berndt the caribbean or the pastor from Westborough Baptist church will protest at the funerals of servicemen, they get picked up because they are loud and shrill but not representative of the overwhelming majority of either conservative or christian people in this country. But because it was the most liberal journalist dont have is conservative figure in the evangelical context and they tend to gravitate to those they hear the most about. It gives a skewed and to shed of the number of people hold liberal and christian views but also the range as well. Studied by a. E. I. With results consistent with these surveys digest and ginger. Between hubert fewer positive stories appeared with the republicans in the white house. So when you take this all together, you have a vision of the Mainstream Media and ends up being biased in favor of liberal or antichristian ideas because being in control of that public narrative really does matter. Just how binder changes to a story can make a difference but before i show you those pictures, one of the reasons this is important that the most pressing spiritual issue is who gets to do rate the world . And how they fare rate matters the way we think or Public Policy decisions get made. He handed out that photograph. Great storytelling candela said a powerful reaction but who holds the camera really does matter. Small changes can make a big difference. We see this every day these changes are subtle the differences are subtle but they do make the difference in the ultimate narrative told to the american people. Content matters. I would like to shift gears a little bit to also talk about the media themselves the technology how that has changed and how those changes also affect the way we think or process it is. Have modern Media Technology and culture rerouted our ability to use a good especially complex issues that many whose thought deeply thought the answer is yes. One wrote a powerful book it was called amusing themselves into death. But the famous metaphor was some signals. In to where i am and i have a desire to communicate. With my lovely and haiti in desiree and fears. Of media has limitations it is important to understand what can and communicates but all media especially new technology they tended to show lepers but the negative aspect recall that that have the every effect and if you walk by a bar at 5 00 in the afternoon the saudi does not say committed we will take all of your monday and making stupid causing you to make bad decisions he will regret for the rest of your life that was assigned a body would go wind. So instead it says what . Happy hour it wants to communicate the positive message first rather than the negative benefits that show up later. We dont embrace the new Technology Like the laptop for the iphone or and the other technologies we have embraced because the negative consequences that might show up as a result. We know now that many people die every year thousands literally because of texting while driving the. If we were told that was a primary consequence is that we would die a in a work carr we would never embrace that technology. We embrace because they offer real benefits but theres also a cost. Postman says we should always be my way not just the benefits but the net cost or the benefits but what showed up in the news a couple of years ago i have come to college of the facebook burglar. A woman whose house was robbed posted a Security Camera video on her facebook profile and because of that the burglar was identified and arrested. Of that is all you know, you think that is fantastic use of the video camera, facebook, it the internet. But with the rest of the story it turns out that the robber was a facebook friend of the victim in and he learned to the obama and would be out for the evening because of her updates of the facebook profiles of the rest of the story communicates the effected of facebook on this womans life was not the positive as the first part suggests. Also a famous book called understanding media is best known for the idea of the medium is the message he communicated that lead is sometimes called mcluhans label bemidji knew what to wear dark room, pitch black you dont know what is in the rwanda sure behavior . It would be guarded, the beefier, the way you walked round, communicated would be a certain way. If the light suddenly came on to concede your behavior would completely change. If it was like this there are no threats. Happy faces or friends of mine and not enemies. We would complete the change attitude would change by posture would change. What changed about the room . The contents . No. The medium by which we experienced in the room that changed. That is one of the reasons why he says the median is the odd message but media compels a certain behavior with everyone that to be indicative of who we are or not. Sometimes when the talk to young people use the example above board of the rings the contrast of the book can the movie. He has of lot of teams in the movie he is called son, stridor which tells you about his physical abilities. He does not stroll he is a stridor. Also ranger, a protector. So as the book is written these names unfolded and we begin to interact to build a picture in ermine to include the future king will be and if you see the movie a sikh it is wonderful in midways but the vision of whom he is an altogether characters are dictated by the director Peter Jackson dam would never pitch every have been my blind aha is overwhelmed by the want the movie producer wants me to have that looks a lot like wharton sent to me. They have the power to manipulate us. It has the ability as a producer journalist, a movie producer or record producer, mccann post their view on us rather than allowing us to collaborate and purchase a pate with the world to come up with our understanding of what the world looks like. What can we do about it . I will close with this and then you can ask questions about the book and ideas. One of the things is to stand for and with what is sometimes called the good, the true, and the beautiful for those who produce the a good pitcher in the beautiful. Our World Magazine the powerful tool is what we call biblical story telling. It is a process to use scripture as a standard of truth and using some of biblical lore to make a truce, life. So for example, it is not enough to say abortion is bad if you believed it was but more powerful or effective to tell stories of women, children, the families and communities that abortion has impacted until the consequences of abortion or whatever it is. I also want to be clear we dont think technology is bad. Clearly my presence today does not the amazing power point presentation we pray we watched this on cspan another form of technology. Will the kid is bad at all but we should use all the technological tools that has been made available but we must be consumers of technologies so were not manipulated with the abilities or the limitations of these technologies. I will hold this closing story if you will indulge me a couple of minutes at the end of the presentation but i would like to see if there are any questions you might have. Wait for the microphone. I will take the opportunity to ask the first question. I noticed you keep talking about journalism journalists used to write down what they observe today than they cross the line of i feel bad said maybe we should feel bad did we have gotten to the point even before the story is released the talking points or the p. R. Campaign has gone so we tell you what you are going to read before you read it civic a great question. That is part of the pathological elands cape. Is their way to get around it . That pandoras box has been opened i dont think we can go back to 83 24 7 new cycle and if we could just back up it is not malicious that create this engagement environment the instead of a couple of News Networks we have tendered 12th instead of 30 minutes with Walter Cronkite we have 24 hours said day seven days the week so they have to fill its. Will not say there is not enough news but not enough reporting capabilities of that is a big part of its. The ultimate solution is in the hands of the consumer we have to stop rewarding that kind of behavior. We have to reward with the major shipping and Financial Resources those organizations that put reporters on the ground to do real reporting not just resorting to punditry in the studio that is usually Like Washington and new york not places like where i lived Charlotte North Carolina and the red states in america. The world is explicit to eliminate eliminate those rolled use can you comment how much it disclosure you think those on . That differences between print and broadcast on blind how eliminating day are . Limit that is an interesting question because World Magazine is explicitly christian and to other media claim to be fair and balanced the we have an entire chapter in and prodigal press we had to revise fairly extensively because things change so much where 1988 the media was very subjective for the most part for most part disguised subjectivity. Now we have moved into an era there is undisguised subjectivity with msnbc as an example. You might remember the Barack Obama Campaign used the slogan for word as part of the campaign branding. You might remember about that same time msnbc went through the replanting process you know, the slogan in it now uses . Leaned forward. I am not saying there is the explicit complicity between the Obama Campaign and msnbc but it reflects a commonality of world views so that there are now live in the environment where most of the News Networks are much more explicitly either conservative or liberal in their point of view i will also say even because of some of the things that we just talked about the lack the lack of sources in the ability and willingness to paint conservatives stereotypically but even those that pretends to have some level of balance skewed heavily on the liberal side. I cannot resist to say that the legendary film reviewer when nixon was reelected in this 72 was one of the greatest landslides in American History taylor reportedly said nixon . I know anybody who voted for nixon. She was probably telling the truth. She probably didnt know anyone so that is the anecdote that indicates just what a bubble most journalists live video dont know what is going on outside that bubble. Retire journalistic and educator, i started in journal journalism in the 70s pages of pages were supposed to be news sent what you pointed out is a blend wear today people have a hard time distinguishing between the editorial is all thrown together what role do you see education playing with your christian belief some may say it is a bias but a world view with everything you believe an end. What is of letting people know the differences this is the opinion this is Something Else . Is huge. Idle think is likely the mainstream institution can rise to that challenge. There almost in an with Journalism Schools and christian and colleges in america. May be others if you want to teach journalism at the College Level you have to have a graduate degree in journalism. Usually. Is unlikely somebody coming up in the system educated mostly liberal mostly secular the label will go off to have a world view any different from the last 20 or 25 years that they had been indoctrinated. Education and should play a role but we put our kids in Public School systems our journalist in particular and up, read to institutions and then it will change that pattern. I emesis a journalist with watchdog. Certainly when it comes to world views you talk about fox news forces cnn. Fox news is not christian with its orientation. And the christian and broadcast network what it is doing am not terribly familiar with it, i think it is a step in the right direction perhaps but it is not nearly enough to combat the overwhelmingly secular and liberal world view we see on virtually every other News Networks that is out there. Those resources combined with only about to raise small fraction of the news gathering capabilities you would find it like that nbc. Without making specific judgments i would say whatever theyre doing that is good is inadequate. Westborough Baptist Church you talked about these radical voices but being a little more baptist they always make the news. Could you talk about why they may be deemed to newsworthy . Becket issa combination end of ideology and practicality that i dont think most in the Mainstream Media have the training and tools the and temperament and background to tell the difference west Westborough Baptist or Saddleback Church but i just think for the most part they dont get the difference. It is just lacking that inability but again that is part of the trading if i of a science reporter it is inconceivable i would be hired without having a science background. Yet journalists everyday in our reporters cover issues every day that have a religious or moral or ethical component in dont have any trading in these areas. They just dont have the difference but another part is the practicality. If they put out press releases or videotaping with their doing making the a videotape available, making it easier for the media by staging demonstrations to hold up signs that god hates fags then i cannot resist. But at the local level future of iraq virtually any local Television News network it comes to pass if it leads it leads. They cover car wreck samphire because it is flashing lights and visual santa looks good on television. But the other side is this year is some animosity fed phelpses representative of mainstream plays in to many peoples narratives of evangelical christianity even the wood is not true. Is what they want to believe so there will continue to cover like that cross burning pastor like down in florida. As a foot know how much of journalism i thought of it as partly a Public Service the debt now where is the profit line . We need to do the news if you look at William Randolph hearst becoming would of the wealthiest man on the planet long before the era but allows jews segue the upcoming gatt of nonprofit organizations within the secular arena or the corporation for public broadcasting lot that because it is a Different Organization but like npr that receives funding. And public of the is a Nonprofit Center privately funded unfortunately from my point of view they tended to be leftleaning in that is where it comes from a and we john of the viable alternative to those types of organizations that could be the wave of the future with your more nonprofit journalism funded especially Investigative Journalism it doesnt always return in their way. And either questions . Earlier in your talk today ease said journalists are very much liberal with political leagues is there something in the system that drives liberal people to that kind to of profession . What those sonics is so overwhelmingly liberal . Rebecca goes back and part to the education insisted most journalists are trained befell liberal secular academies of this country so that is likely going to be what they produce. They have the statistics but a gallup has been doing a survey about Church Attendance and a bear cub while the moves up and down and has trailed off miguel a pass the question have you attended a religious service of the last seven days but when journalists asked the same question then the bridge is usually less than 10 to. You can argue is that right or wrong . It is way different than the religious orientation in of the journalist looks really different from the mainstream. With the down were the spiral if all your friends are liberal default friends are secular in orientation to get positive reinforcement you would also be hard to rationalize outside your world view because you get affirmation professionally and personally within the community of which your operating. Any of their questions . Some of what i said you may believe i am a pessimist but i am not. Think theres a lot of hope for the future and to the idea that hope springs from history is god always works through a remnant through the decline would have a right to share with you is the battle of britain that i think many of you know,. It began august 1940 when in part hitler wanted to invade britain in he did control but to find out hitlers plans to skip down to the last paragraph in the sheer force must have been beaten down to such an extent that it could not muster in the power of the attack worth mentioning against the german crossing. What we know is the english airforce was not beaten down despite toch a tremendous discretion discretion i love that pitcher see the dog running after that . Is humanizes the pitcher and we also know it gives overwhelming odds of the whale airforce did not prevail but they could battle to a stalemate in the battle of britain which would end in october of 1940. But Winston Churchill who was one of the most dramatic figures of 20thcentury history said this about the battle of britain he said never before in these phalera has so much been owed by so many to so few. With a studied this battle and of little more closely i discovered the raf of the head 2,000 pilots only 2,000 went up every day against the full might. It gave me a lot of the anchorage mayor. The as it is to become discouraged while bbv few hidden the bear that with gods help it would be enough. Think you for hosting the it is a pleasure i look forward to having lunch with some of you and he got for the next hour. Thank you. [applause] santry do have copies of the prodigal press in the lobby and thank you for your attendance. You will see you in the future. [inaudible conversations] get the time the cia had taken a beating being through grueling hearings about who should be blamed for 9 11 whether the ncaa failed to watchlist certain individuals and failed to share information that might have foretold or allowed to the fbi to investigate the plot of an 11. The cia and i think it is fair to say was buffeted by these particular hearings then the 9 11 commission came along with another set of hearings that were very tough indeed dead german