Unfortunatly Robertson Does Matter

From the Daily Pepper,

Pat Robertson is a joke and should be treated as such. Like Ezra said, this is really nothing new from his team, and it's nothing worth getting agitated over. It would be wildly funny if people didn't take Robertson so seriously. Robertson is front-page news. Methinks he's planning a pledge drive.

A reality check: Pat Robertson doesn't matter. He's a fool. Hugo Chavez' response was dead-on, "I don't even know who this person is." Pat Robertson has done what all grade-Z celebrities do - they pull a Busey. Pulling a Busey is to say something so shockingly stupid that it automatically generates attention.

And now contrast that with this from Digby,

“The 700 Club's average daily audience, according to AC Nielsen's November sweeps, is up 26% over last year. At a time when most daily shows are struggling The 700 Club is experiencing tremendous increases. November's average daily audience of 922,000 households is the highest in ten years and we experienced the same success in October and November.”

 

A rather large number of Americans watch Christian TV. An increasing number of them get their news from this media. Pat Robertson, whose 700 Club appears more than once a day on Disney owned Family Channel, is the most popular of all...and he's a lunatic spreading hate and violence to people who are very susceptible to his message. It's only a matter of time.

I am not trying to defend Pat Robertson by any means; I dislike him as much as anyone. But I am however providing a warning that not everyone agrees that “Pat Robertson doesn't matter;” he obviously does matter to some people, nearly one million a day. Although he does say some crazy things that make headlines that most of his viewers do not agree with, hundreds of thousands of people agree with enough of what he says to tune in every day.

A similar comment could be made about Cindy Sheehan; that she is only one person and doesn’t matter. But this is obviously incorrect-just like it is incorrect that Pat Robertson doesn’t matter. He obviously mattered in 2000 after his Christian Coalition helped revive President Bush’s campaign after its slow start in New Hampshire. So instead of simply writing off Robertson as a nut that doesn’t matter anymore, recognize that he does matter to some people and the real goal should be to help show these people that they should be looking for religious guidance in more appropriate places.

 

Comments

[Jeff Lynch]

I agree with your comment that Pat Robertson DOES matter to a lot of people. However, I would venture to say that the people that he is able to influence are weak minded people that are LOOKING for someone to tell them how to think, what to say, how to pray and where to send their check. These are the same people that will change their mind as soon as the next lunatic with a better batch of good old fashioned cloaked hate comes along to appeal to their inner nazi. These are the people that run to the store and buy up all of the bread and milk if the weather man says snow. The most dangerous thing about weak people IS their weakness .

[Pepper]

One Caveat - those are some startling numbers. I haven't read Digby yet this morning, but that's an argument to turn my head. And it makes me tempted to write Disney and the "Family Channel."

The only caveat I would make to your caveat is that I see Pat Robertson as just another celebrity with a talk show. I think that treating his statements as a policy statement inflates his head and encourages him. Cindy Sheehan falls in the category of "ordinary person" (although she is moving into the celeb realm). Therefore, her arguments gain merit because she is an ordinary person who has managed to make her voice heard. Pat Robertson has it easy as he rules his show.

Your caveats always get me thinkin'!