Is Jerry Falwell’s Questionable Integrity a Red Herring? The Unmistakable Power of American Media

Call me a worrier. Call me a conspiracy theorizer. Maybe you could even say I have too much time on my hands or need to “get a life.” However you deem my opinion, there still remains a strangeness in the flow of our media and the way it grabs America’s attention away from the real issues at hand.

So Jerry Falwell wasn’t liked by everyone. He has done good, and he has done bad. He sounds very much human to me. Suddenly, it seems the American media has nothing better to report on than the atrocities that this man apparently took part in, though no one really seemed bothered with him until after he passed away.

It is just me, or does it seem that the media jumped on the bandwagon in order to pull America’s attention away from other issues? Did he really anger Larry Flynt this much? Have we all of a sudden become moral and upright in this country, enough to dishonor someone in death, but not in life?

Or could this be just another example of the power that the American media has over its viewers? In one moment, it seemed that a little light was shining in, and people were beginning to question its government’s actions and inactions concerning the war and the attacks on 9/11. The next moment, Jerry Falwell is being morally decapitated, and every household (around my neighborhood, at least) pits their stakes on a side of the issue.

Even though the issue is not a very good one. Should we praise him in life and ostracize him (actually, his family) in death?

What is the real issue at hand, folks? I believe his would-be tormentors missed their chance to debate his intentions, actions, and inactions. The man is dead, now. Let his family mourn. If he is “embracing satan,” as one person said on national television on the day he died, then so be it.

We, who are alive and remain, have work to do. Let’s focus on that work and complete it. Let’s debate the real issues with the living leaders of our country. Let’s not wait until there is an unbeatable bandwagon belief with a dead argument before we so vehemently oppose or upraise a moral integrity.