News of the Weird
You know how the Republicans are always saying that we shouldn’t subsidize PBS? They say, “Hey, if it’s so popular, it can make money in the marketplace.”
Let me explain how that works. Take The Learning Channel, for example.
TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel owned by Discovery Communications. The channel was founded in 1972 by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and NASA. Initially focused on educational content, by 2001 the network began to primarily focus towards reality-style series involving lifestyles, family life, and personal stories.
Disney bought The Learning Channel and we went from NASA to Honey Boo Boo and exploiting midgets. Way to freekin’ go, Disney. Yea free market!
And now comes The History Channel – which features Pawn Stars, Ax Men, Ancient Aliens and The Bible and is owned by private enterprise A&E.
In case you’re wondering how The History Channel depicts the Devil in it’s series of The Bible, here ya go.
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Look familiar?
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
Any number of folks from my church who is watching The Bible will believe this depiction and, if they are the least bit smart, they will NOT make reference to who they think dear Roma Downey and her hubby have cast as Satan in their “version” of The Bible. On the first night, I could only stomach about 15 minutes and said this is ridiculous and found something else to watch!
My stand is this: If you want to know what is in the Bible, then pick it up and read it for yourself … interpret it for yourself! Too many sanctimonious so-called “Christians” like to spew their assumptions that Obama is the anti-Christ … I hope to God so many of those folks will still be around and actually get to meet whomever that might end up being! I can just bet ya it won’t be President Obama! Sad, sad people!!
1Mark Burnett & his wife, Roma Downy, produced this series. They are thisclose to Joel & Victoria Osteen so their version of the devil does not shock me at all. It just confirms my belief that the “Prosperity Gospel” is a devilish idea made up by con-men who want to seperate the gullible from their money using religion and fear. Con men (women) have been doing this for centuries.
Shame on them for this not so subtle insult to our President. Back in the UK, it’s illegal to use the Queen in such a manner, but their respect & courtesy apparently ends at the Pond, despite they fact they made most of their millions here.
2I always thought the devil was the guy who owned Faux Nooz. Who, by the way, was Richard Nixon’s media consultant (really).
3Once again my complete lack of interest in all things Bible has spared me from this synapse-killer.
4JJ, Pawn Stars, at least, does occasionally deal in historical artifacts. This from an in-the-DNA picker. As for the rest, it’s mostly rednecks behaving badly and ooga-booga.
5@Publius:
I don’t think “Pawn Stars” is really appropriate for History [Channel], but it does have the virtue of being in-your-face candid in being all about teh muneeze. I’ll take two back-to-back episodes of “Pawn Stars” and Chumlee over an hour of “Antiques Road Show” any damn day of the week.
6Decorum and Momma prevent me from offering my opinion on this other than to say these charlatans are beneath contempt.
7Well, isn’t that just tacky and childish?!! And yes, glyn, they are… both charlatans and beneath contempt.
We don’t have cable or dish so I have escaped this drivel. Are they following the King James Version literally or are they “interpreting” and “adapting”? It’s doubtful they are making their own translations from the Hebrew and Greek. Someone(s) please let me know how they treat the Song of Songs (aka Song of Solomon) and Oholah and Oholibah in Ezekiel. bible.oremus.org is your friend. 😉
8I wanted to share this article on FB, but couldn’t find a share button. Keep up the good work, you’re one of the first things we start our day with!
9Given the way God is depicted by the religious right, I think I prefer the Devil.
10The thing that chaps me is that we are all paying for it. If it is on broadcast tv, the commercials pick up the tab. The price of everything we buy that is advertized on tv reflects those ad cost. If it is on cable, subscribers are paying some of the freight along with the commercials. We are subsidizing tv preachers and all of the propaganda and drivel. Bet TNN is not self sustaining.
Wish we could just pay for the channels we want.
11In the first season of Hawaii 5-0 Jason Quinn played a thin black man in prison. When he was interrogated he was called Billy, but the name tag on his uniform clearly read, “B. Omana.” It was just a coincidence that I stopped watching the show after that episode.
12A basic strategy in propaganda and politics is to demonize the opponent. Now they’re trying to do it literally.
13Probabaly the only ones watching this bit o’ drek are going to be true believers anyway. You know, the ones who are still complaining that secular humanists caused Touched by an Angel to go off the air after nearly ten years.
14Judy the SHARE stuff is right over your head but easy to miss.
15This is just another pseudo-similarilty. The last notable comparison was between Apple CEO Tim Cook …
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/tim-cook.html
… and Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks …
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://comm2302.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/jar_jar2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://comm2302.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/ewok-nation-yes-please/&h=478&w=501&sz=12&tbnid=k_-2MAc0rzuMwM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=87&prev=/search%3Fq%3Djar%2Bjar%2Bbinks%2Bpictures%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=jar+jar+binks+pictures&usg=__0tpVvkFu9J5haF4JoKppSZwm-4o=&docid=Mk7MQEpVaQHcWM&sa=X&ei=uGNHUfu6F8eGyQGduIDgBQ&ved=0CDUQ9QEwAQ&dur=96
16Mark Burnett produces Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” and worked on Sarah Palin’s show, “Alaska”. Burnett and Downey’s protestations of “innocence” ring hollow.
17The show has also been criticized for casting good characters as whites and villains as dark skinned.
I started to watch the first episode and thought it pandered only to low information viewers and felt sad all that money was spent on untalented actors spouting a lame script with British accents, with cheesy effects. I stopped watching but forgot to delete the TiVo last week, fortunately I didn’t forget this week. I’ll read the book, something I don’t think the producers have done. I did watch 60 Minutes last night and their profile of Downey-Burnett basically came across as nut jobs who slather on the pious while pushing their agenda as holy and everyone else wrong. They left a nasty taste in my mouth.
18I read a review of this series in the local paper; the reviewer was not in the least impressed. When I read that Roma Downey was playing the role of Mary, I laughed out loud as she must be 50 years old. One of my sons started to watch it and said it was horrible and he changed the channel within 15 minutes.
RA is correct, Burnett and Downy are tacky and childish.
19Since it has been mentioned, shows like Pawn Stars and such are on History Channel, let me tell you about the American Pickers show they did right here across the street from my office – the WHOLE THING IS A FAKE SET-UP, including the Farmers Market and the Truck. They put it all in an alley on Second Avenue and film around it. I was “shocked”, actually, I called my husband yelling, “I told you it was fake, there is NO DUST, ever”….so, yeah, they film in Music City and in an alley about a block from the Metro Courthouse on Second Avenue. Sorry if I broke your hearts or your history…..
20Oh, oh, oh….the short fat guy is shorter and fatter than you think and the tall guy ain’t tall at all, about 5’9″ and skinny~
21Interesting lesson for children of watching zealots – skin color has replaced hat color in identifying good guys and bad guys. Painless prejudice promoting’
22Lorraine, I forgot to add that what Joel & Victoria Osteen know about the Bible could fit on the point of a pin. You know, the opposite end of where “angels” like Roma Downey dance.
23If I could work up enough energy today to be surprised, I’d be outraged 1) that they’re depicting Satan as looking like Obama and 2) that a series called The Bible with ANY depiction of Satan is running on something that calls itself The History Channel. I look forward to millions of people who disagree with this “history” demanding equal time.
Makes me glad we quit cable TV a while back.
24I tried watching this Bible series as it comes on just before that wonderfully heathen show, The Vikings. OMG, I’ve seen better acting in community theatre. We’re talking some serious scenery chewing.
And don’t you be talking smack about Ancient Aliens. There’s more truth about the Bible in THAT show than the one that purports to be.
25Hey, the Devil’s supposed to be fascinating and seductive, not earnest and grim. But what do the Osteens know?
26@RA
I didn’t memorize the Bible like the Osteens did, but at least I got the message.
27I’m happy to confess that I don’t watch TV. I’d rather read; that way if I don’t like it I can switch books.
28As Letterman pointed out tonight, this is funny because if Obama was actually Satan, the Republicans would have been willing to deal with him.
29So why did they feel the need to cast the Devil as a black man in the first place?
This is their Jesus (who should at least be deeply tanned): http://www.history.com/shows/the-bible/pictures/the-bible-cast-gallery/the-bible-31
30Teehee,
31I flipped through the other night at a friends house(I don’t own a TV after spending 15 years producing it, back when Discovery was discovery, and History was history)and caught the scene with Daniel in the Lions Den. LOL Those Lions were obviously shocked and awed by Daniels 6-Pack abs, that’s why they lost their appetite! Wonder what that Casting couch looked like after a few Days?
Long ago (1995), the History Channel made a four part series titled Crusades. I covered much more detail than anything I learned in school, but since the star and narrator was Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame), it was lighthearted, entertaining and occasionally a little irreverent. Great television. My how the History Channel has fallen.
32This one got me all wound up…how dare they do this…Jesus would be twirling on his cross if he knew the kind of bull-pucky that was being done in, and associated with, his name. I swear, I don’t know what book the the producers read, but it wasn’t the bible.
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