Our Mailbox Runneth Over
(AP)
Well, it’s been a quiet week at “Couric and Co.” And it’s only Wednesday.
The mailman nearly suffered a hernia hauling in sacks of comments over Monday’s “freeSpeech” segment. (We took a few packages that were ticking and threw them in the creek…) Surf around the CBS News website and you’ll find all sorts of ideas and opinions about this. A tell-tale sign that this was going to be an especially interesting week: nearly every comment, on every post, for the last three days, has had something to say about “freeSpeech,” no matter what the topic.
Personally, I was struck by how many of the people who posted began their comments with one word: “Shame.” As in “Shame on you, Katie Couric.” (I might mention here that the majority of people wagging their fingers and using that word would proudly label themselves free-thinking, tolerant, progressive, maybe even liberal. Tolerance, it seems, has its limits.) I was also struck by how the tide seems to have turned. Over the last 24 hours, a growing number of e-mails and comments have been in support of Brian Rohrbough and his views. A friend of mine who runs a conservative blog says that’s not surprising. She told me that most people who agree with Rohrbough would not be inclined to watch CBS, and when they heard through the blogosphere grapevine that “freeSpeech” was causing a kerfuffle, and that abortion and evolution and Christianity were being mentioned, they wandered over to take a look.
Now it’s hitting the papers. Media maven Howard Kurtz (who, I swear, should be played by Ray Romano in the movie version of his life) has written about the controversy in this morning’s Washington Post.
And you’ll find more down the street, where Vaughn is busily corralling kittens at Public Eye.
Take a look, and then take a look around. We’re continuing to get comments all over the place.
And it’s still only Wednesday.
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See all 81 CommentsThat being said, I fully support his right to speak his mind. Instead of "shame" being on CBS, it should be on those who would deny Mr. Rohrbaugh's right to a public opinion. Just because I don't feel he's right (or even sane), doesn't mean I can take away his right to be heard.
I'm curious, do you believe that the schools are responsible for this decline in faith (as the conservatives claim), or that the public at large is just for one reason or another shunning church attendance? Is church attendance related to strength of faith?
I encourage you to read "Trends among US Christians" at http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_tren.htm
That's an interesting point of view. So you believe that the decline of religious values in people's lives, while not the fault of the public schools, is rooted in the courts taking of religion out of public schools?
Who's religion do you propose we put back? The two most dominant, or just one? Christianity and Islam? Which sect? Protestantism, Catholosism, Shia, Sunni, Orthodox Greek, Episcapalean, Baptist, Lutheran, etc. Or the one that was the dominant religion when it was "taken out"?
Do the parents of these children not share responsability, for not ensuring that while the school may not talk about religion anymore (not like the schools were heavy into preaching before anyway), the family as a whole should keep up it's religious observances by continuing to go to church?
You can't tell me that just because schools stop doing morning prayer, that students suddenly stop going to church. Wouldn't they go more often, to satisfy their religious need that has been denied to them by the school?
Or are the children so sheep-like, that when the school stops mentioning religion either way, they immediately drop all need to be spiritual?
Maybe instead of singling out the courts for removing religion from schools, you should be focusing on those people who are twisting established religious values to approve of all sorts of heinous crimes.
It's easy to be supportive of institutionalized belief if it agrees with your beliefs. Not so easy when it disagrees.
On the other subject broached:
Overall, I find the CBS Evening News "leans" to the left -- but I assume the bias is unitended, or at least seldom is intended.
There have not been enough segments of Free Speech for me to call the speakers "mostly" right leaning even though Rush may represent 2 votes.
I will give the segment at least 6 months before I make any such observations beyond the above. It seems to be serving its purpose -- and to me it has been, overall, thought provoking.
Keep it up.
But in the great tradition of free speech and debate we now need an opposing voice who can provide an alternative view. I can think of none better person than Bill Maher. I heard him speak about the 'free speech' on his HBO program recently and he mentioned that he was only permitted to speak on certain topics. I don't know if that is true or not, but now would be a perfect opportunity to make amends to Mr. Maher and invite him and give him completely freedom to say whatever he wants.
My two cents on the Rohrbaugh "Free Speech" segment.
While frankly I was rather taken aback by Rohrbaugh's blunt comments, I have absolutely no problem with his expressing those views, even though I couldn't disagree with him more.
With so many television "debate shows" serving as virtual shouting matches, it is refreshing to hear the uninterrupted views of "Free Speech" participants, whether I share their opinions or not.
P.S.: Love your show. You go, girl!
Thank you for clearing that up. I apologize for misreading your comment. :)
I agree, a class along the lines of religious studies would be an excellent tool to help foster religious tolerance.
The pitfall is in ensuring that religions are studied rather than promoted. My high school attempted to create such a class many years ago, but cancelled the idea after the teacher decided to spend 90% of the class preaching, and about 10% actually covering/comparing/contrasting the various religions of the world. I believe now that the teacher has left, they have re-introduced the idea, making an optional class that studies world religions in a History class context.
I remember that same episode of Bill's show and couldn't agree with you more. Perhaps its more that they needed to make some noise, so why not now?
Thank you for having the courage to tolerate Free Speech, especially when you and many of your viewers do not see eye to eye with some of the opinions presented. My wife and I are Black Americans that watch your program daily and we have not heard a more riveting word of truth then Rohr Baugh%u2019s. He really hit the nail on the head which exemplifies the Proverb that says; %u201CTrain up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.%u201D- Sadly, this country has not done a good job of train up. BEST REGARDS! GF
Poor choice of words in your blog. Journalists need to be nuetral. Further proof that isn't the case on Network news. Please stop the brainwashing on the airwaves and blogosphere.
I was disappointed her KC words of choice by saying Mr. Rohrbaugh, opinion might be repugnant to some. However that is often the same thing I get when posting my Christian concervative opinion.
I think you will be surprised to see how many people agree completely with Mr. Rohrbaugh. It seems that the kids who did the killing at Columbine, had on their T-shirts, slogans referring to natural selection, survival of the fittest etc. This is one of the underpinnings of Mr. Rohrbagh's argument that the secularization of our schools and society in general plays a part in incidents such as the recent school shootings.
It seems to come as a shock to liberals that many Americans are still traditionalists regarding moral absolutism and the desire to keep God in the public square. I'm hoping the feedback you get on this story will awaken you and CBS to the fact that most folks in America don't find anything said by Mr. Rohrbaugh 'regpugnant'. On the contrary, I, and millions of other Americans stand behind his views. And CBS should be applauded for airing them, despite the network's reservations and lack of understanding regarding what most Americans think.
Lee Langley
Thanks to Bill O'Reilly I heard your word of the day is "repugnant".
God bless Mr. Rohrbach,his comment on CBS and your segment allowing him to speak. Finally we conservatives have a "voice" on the liberal news network.
Mr. Rohrbach's comments were heartfelt & dead on.
So what have you gained? 3rd place? small whoopee.
To Katie and CBS excellent move to have this segment of free speech this is the only way a people can truly discuss things that are on their minds.
You are repugnant. May god bless Mr. Rohrbaugh.
PT
Protestant? Catholic? Mormon? Jehovah's Witness? Allah? the Jewish God? Native American? Taoist? Budhist?
Thankfully the Deist authors of the constitution (Jefferson, Adams and Franklin) had the intelligence to establish a clear separation between church and state so that those of us in the minority (non-Christians) would not be oppressed by the views of the (christian) majority.
Thankfully all the NeoCons (so-called Christians) running this country into the ground cannot undo the laws our Deist (non-christian) founding fathers established.
That said, I think "Free Speech" is great and what makes this country great. Keep up the good work Katie. Oh and BTW, it's nice to see some HOT LEGS on the evening news for once instead of some shriveled up geriatric with a 2 pack a day habit.
NBC or ABC for some time now - just too liberal!
However, I did see Mr. Rohrbough on Bill O'Reilly
tonight.
The above comments reflect my own. I just read
the comments on the Washington Post site. It
was scary, the number of people who said Mr.
Rohrbough was a nutcase. They were angry that
CBS actually let him air his views. Nothing,
apparently, is sacred to these people.
I can remember a time when children were raised
by a mother and father that taught them right from
wrong. They all went to church on Sunday and then
home to a good dinner together.
People were not killing children and children were
not killing other children. We have become a land
of barbarians! Partial-birth abortion is a good
example of how far down we have fallen.
My God, what has happened to our beloved country?
As to "repugnant" that is a fair description to a majority of Americans of the book burning like dump on evolution - like exactly how has teaching the fact of evolution corrupted the morals of the nation? And does the fact that the majority are pro-choice make the majority of Americans evil and without morals?
Keep up the good work Katie - exposing the right wing nuts - via showing their own words and lack of logic - is the best way to rid ourselves of this cancer on society that practices the opposite of what Jesus preached, while telling us they are moral because of their deep affection for any 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 cell zygote (or do we call this clump a pre-embryo, or a pre-pre-fetus, or a potential, albeit with rather low probability, pre-pre-pre baby).
Hang in there Katie - you're doing great!
Not putting a 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 cell zygote ahead of the life or health of a women makes society immoral leading to evil occuring in our society.
And the hard and well documented science of evolution being taught in our schools makes society immoral leading to evil occuring in our society.
As someone once said, in a free society your freedom ends at the tip of my nose. These folks want to force their rules on me - ending my freedom. Repugnant is a good word to describe this.
Ps. I bet most people do not know that separation of Church and
State is no where in the Constitution!
Have courage to stand up for what is right! I look forward to seeing your faithful portrayal of those values. You can do it!
It's interesting that the same NeoCons who fight for the right to bear arms, now blame "kicking God out of our schools" for the attrocities madmen foist upon mankind.
After Ellie Weisel watched his entire family being murdered during the holocaust he devoted the rest of his life to making sure we never forget man's capacity for inhumanity or our even greater capacity for human compassion.
Too bad Brian Rohrbough blew his shot at doing the same with the chance his son gave him, instead of making political hay for the NeoCons pushing an agenda of bigotry and inhumanity.
Our investment in space paid for the development of miracles as wide-ranging as the earliest ICs, satellite communications, plastics and metals used in artificial hips and knees, and too many other advances to count. Conversely, the first world has poured billions of dollars and Euros into Africa, and has yielded only starvation, genocides, dictators and corruption. Here at home, Johnson%u2019s %u201CGreat Society%u201D yielded slums and a dependent underclass.
Rather than speculate on what might have been done with the space program money, why not speculate what might have been done if the billions wasted on Africa had been spent on space exploration, or on expanding the college loan program?
You're too young to remember the late Frank McGee%u2019s (NBC) interviews with Martin Luther King and Werner Von Braun during one of the early Apollo flights. King had lamented how the money should have been spent on the poor. Then, McGee turned to Von Braun, and asked. %u201CIf the money hadn%u2019t been spent on the race to the moon, what might the money have bought here on earth?%u201D Von Braun answered, %u201CThe fins on the new Cadillac would be three inches longer.%u201D
Mr. Rohrbough said that evolution is responsible for all the terrible wars and violence in the world. But the truth is, wars and violence have been around since man's beginning, but evolution is a relatively new teaching, getting its first significant push in the mid-1800s by Darwin. Most wars are actually carried out in the name of religion, not evolution. Even after evolution was well-known, the two great wars of the 20th century were fought by "Christians," not evolutionists. Hitler was a "Christian" who led "Christian" Germany and Catholic "Christian" Italy against the "Christian" Allied forces, mainly Britain and the U.S.
This is not unusual. The Bible even begins with a murder, Cain killing Abel. But Jesus warned that "he who takes the sword shall perish by the sword." Bush and the U.S. -- mostly Christians -- started a war in Iraq. Does that make Bush and most Americans evolutionists? Obviously not. But what it does prove is that if Christians would spend their time trying to apply the laws and principles of love that Christ himself commanded upon them, they would spend less time spilling blood and violating those laws while trying to enact laws upon a few people -- all in a futile effort to gain God's good graces.
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