Widespread anti-Christian bias in the media means that groups like The Christian Institute face an “uphill struggle” for fair coverage, says a Sky News journalist.
Journalists select the information they wish to report based on a largely anti-Christian ideology, says David Blevins, a former Washington correspondent for Sky News.
Mr Blevins made his comments on Christian blog, To Whom It May Concern. When asked if the media in America and the UK understands evangelical Christians, he said:
“Not at all. It’s important to remember that what appears in the newspapers is not an objective summary of the significant things that happened yesterday but an ideological selection based on the prejudices, agendas and assumptions of a relatively small group of people.
“Their ideology could be loosely defined as ‘progress will one day meet our needs.’ So as with other forms of thought that deviate from that ideological view, evangelical Christianity is either dismissed out of hand or reported in a manner that serves to reinforce the ideology!
“‘Religion’ is viewed as obscure, life-denying and regressive. Organisations like Evangelical Alliance and the Christian Institute face an uphill struggle to change that perception.”
Last month, John Smeaton of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child accused The Times newspaper of a “blatant bias on life issues”.
In 2006 executives at the BBC admitted that they would consider broadcasting a scene where the Bible was thrown away but they would never do the same with the Koran.
Robin Aitken, a former BBC reporter, has written a book on the subject. He names Christians among the BBC’s “in-house pariah groups”.
“These people,” he says, “will never get the soft interview or helpful publicity.”
Former Chief Political Correspondent, Andrew Marr, has said that the BBC has a “liberal bias” and is staffed by an “abnormally large number” of gays.
Archbishop John Sentamu said in 2006 that Christians took “more knocks” in BBC programmes than other faiths.
He added: “They can do to us what they dare not do to the Muslims. We are fair game because they can get away with it.”