{"id":8044,"date":"2006-07-27T10:10:02","date_gmt":"2006-07-27T14:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8044.html"},"modified":"2006-07-27T10:10:02","modified_gmt":"2006-07-27T14:10:02","slug":"end-times-expert-talks-to-cnn-and-who-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/end-times-expert-talks-to-cnn-and-who-else\/","title":{"rendered":"End-times ‘expert’ talks to CNN — and who else?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just to follow up on yesterday’s item<\/a>, [tag]CNN[\/tag]’s interest in characterizing recent world events as some kind of Biblical [tag]apocalypse[\/tag] is quickly becoming ridiculous. As Media Matters noted<\/a>, the network’s coverage is enough to wonder if it’s CNN or CBN.<\/p>\n

For the second time in three days, CNN featured a segment on the potential coming of the Apocalypse, as indicated by current conflicts in the Middle East. The July 26 edition of CNN’s Live From …<\/i> featured a nine-minute segment in which anchor Kyra Phillips discussed the Apocalypse and the Middle East with Christian authors [tag]Jerry Jenkins[\/tag] and [tag]Joel C. Rosenberg[\/tag] — who share the view that the Rapture is nigh. At one point in the discussion, Phillips asked Rosenberg whether she needed “to start taking care of unfinished business and telling people that I love them and I’m sorry for all the evil things I’ve done,” to which Rosenberg replied: “Well, that would be a good start.” Throughout the segment, the onscreen text read: “Apocalypse Now?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This must be some kind of major ratings booster because there’s no sensible reason for CNN to devote nine minutes to the subject twice in three days. Of course, it’s also worth noting that the network’s discussion featured two “experts” on the subject — both of whom agree that we may be witnessing some kind of [tag]end-times[\/tag] [tag]prophecy[\/tag]. We’re still waiting for the nine-minute segment from two skeptics who explain that this is total nonsense.<\/p>\n

But as it turns out, that’s not the part of the CNN interview that bothered me most.
\n
\nThis was:<\/p>\n

Rosenberg claimed that he had been invited to the White House, Capitol Hill, and the CIA to discuss the Rapture and the Middle East, and noted — several times — that the apocalyptic events described in his novels keep coming true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, Rosenberg said he’d been invited to speak with officials at the highest levels of the federal government — as well as Middle East officials — all of whom “want to understand the Middle East through the lens of biblical prophecies.”<\/p>\n

Now, it’s possible that Rosenberg just wanted to exaggerate his significance. It’s likely his only access to the White House and Congress is from public tours. But if Rosenberg’s telling the truth, and public officials really have invited him to share his “ideas” about current events, then the problem is far worse than what’s become of CNN’s absurd standards for what constitutes news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just to follow up on yesterday’s item, [tag]CNN[\/tag]’s interest in characterizing recent world events as some kind of Biblical [tag]apocalypse[\/tag] is quickly becoming ridiculous. As Media Matters noted, the network’s coverage is enough to wonder if it’s CNN or CBN. For the second time in three days, CNN featured a segment on the potential coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}