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During the 6pm news tonight, Christmas, on KNBC, hosted by Ted Chen and Kelly Mack, there was no mention of the fact that today is the anniversary of Jesus Christ's birth, or the name "Jesus", or the name "Jesus Christ".
Was it because they decided to ignore Christmas all together?
Nope. "Christmas" was uttered 30 times.
"Holiday" was said 10 times.
"Santa" - twice
"pope" - twice
"tsunami" - three times
"savior" - once
Clearly KNBC is more interested in appearing a certain way instead of telling the news of the day.
The top story of the news shouldn't have been that James Brown died this morning, but that today is Jesus Christ's birthday. His birthday is called Christmas.
And if their argument is "everyone knows today is Jesus's birthday", we would argue back that everyone knew it was nice outside and yet the weather guy got a hearty amount of airtime to tell us just that.
The truth is the media has an extremely hard time allowing themselves to say the word Jesus Christ, and will allow that malfunction to get in the way of delivering the news.
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Because all the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and atheists really give a shit whose "birthday" it is today.
Sad. No it is. Merry Christmas. There I said it. I hope I don't get killed.
and i like this article. Way to stick to your guns, laist.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Where's the "news" part of this? Today is Christmas, end of story. Are people so insecure as to need the local news to reinforce their beliefs?
I didn't realize it warranted getting into more than that; and by the way, yeah, the James Brown thing certainly deserved to be a leading story.
Look,First of all nobody knows what day Jesus Christ was born exactly.December 25th as Xmas is a made up holiday started when the rich used to give alms to the poor.It has morphed into a huge shopping extravaganza over the last century.
Secondly,James Brown was the last living legend of popular music.He was a seminal songwriter,singer,performer as important as Elvis Presley,Marvin Gaye a nd Frank Sinatra.Of course, his death should be the lead story!
What is this,the PTL site or something?
hey, if anyone could upstage jesus christ, it's james brown. cmon.
Happy birthday, Jesus!
greg, truer words have never been said.
James Brown deserved to be the lead story. The man is a legend who changed music, and through it, the fabric of our culture. That said, I don't see a good reason to avoid the words "Jesus Christ." I also don't see a pressing need for the news to explain the story of Jesus Christ because, well, it's not exactly new. James Brown's passing is.
How often does the news cover birthdays of historical figures? How often do they tell the story of historical events from years ago? Nationally, you may hear something on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, but the explanations is VERY brief, and it happened within many people's memory.
To look at it a different way, the news doesn't usually talk about the founding fathers on the Independence Day or the pilgrims on Thanksgiving. They do, however, mention that it is the holiday and cover the way it is celebrated. Same as Christmas. At least his name is part of the name of the holiday.
Merry Christmas!
Are you kidding me? Is this a theocracy where the news media are expected to treat religion like news?
Go to church if you want to hear preaching about Christ. They'll say his name over and over. It doesn't belong on the news - thankfully, since we still live in a secular society where religion is not legislated or dictated.
This has to be one of the scariest posts I've ever seen since I started to read LAist.
Laist - What's up with all of this "we didn't mention Jesus" stuff lately?
Some people (me) don't want religion (any sort) mentioned in their news.
Good will, human kndness, brothers of humanity, peace on earth a-ok!
But don't yell foul because newsies are respecting all sorts (ie. those who celebrate other than jesus).
All that good is still there. That said - Happy Christmas. XO
Who gives a crap?
If they need to say Jesus Christ, then they will do so. Obviously they didn't need to, so they didn't, and the news went fine without saying the word.
Why don't you complain that they didn't utter "bomb, bomb, bomb" on the news?
So this is just the sort of thing that may cause me to stop reading LAist.
Who cares if KNBC won't mention Jesus Christ, Christmas as we know it is completely commercialized anyway.
I don't hear them telling us the story of Hanukah every night for eight days, either.
Come on guys.
"We have some late-breaking news...today, Monday, December 25, is alleged to have been the birthday of Jesus Christ, a Middle Eastern historical figure believed to be the son of God by members of a major world religion. More details to follow as they come in to the newsroom. We have also just received word that the month of December is so called because it used to be the tenth month in the Roman calendar.
"In other news, KNBC has just learned that Monday derives its name from the Latin words for 'moon' and 'day,' in a tradition dating back many hundreds of years wherein the days of the week are named after planets. When we return from this short break, Kelly will explain how Base Ten came to be the world's standard numeral system, and will count to twenty-five on the fingers of her hand."
Yeah, KNBC sucks. They never mention the Flying Spaghetti Monster's birthday either...
I think every news broadcast should have mention of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is America, after all. Isn't there already a law requiring this?
More importanly, I am furious -- furious!! -- that KNBC didn't say a word about Sol Invictus, which was co-opted by the Christian church for their own festival of the new-born sun/son. There are clear intellectual property issues here! How can KNBC allow this breaking story to go under their radar? It's bad enough that they hate the Sweet Blood of the Precious Baby Jesus, but are they also in favor of piracy?
End the war on Sol Invictus!!!
It seems like LAist has been turning into the O'Reilly Factor lately.
You're watching the wrong news channel, Tony. Switch to Fox news. And I'm reading the wrong blog. I didn't realize LAist was really the 700 Club website.
Tony, so sad that you spent your Christmas Day hatefully tallying the number of times "savior" and "Pope" were uttered on the Channel 4 News, rather than joyeously celebrating the holiday with family and friends.
Tony-- great post.
PS to #1 Muslims and Buddhists are both down with the Jesus. But they don't control the news...
Another fact which you're not allowed to mention! The two go hand-in-hand.
The worst is when you hear someone on TV say "Happy Holidays" on X-mas day. I am fine with Happy Holidays all December, but on X-mas day, just say Merry Christmas.
For the record, I'm an atheist, and my parents are Hindu, just trying to see things as they are. New levels of ridiculousness!
it's funny how religion can be such a touchy subject for people.
So what did the other TV stations do as far as mentioning or not mentioning Jesus? Why call out one station and not mention the others?
I always knew that Ted Chen and Kelly Mack were heathens! I hope this post is sarcastic, because otherwise it's just sad.
Steven, i only watch one tv station at a time.
if you have other details on other newscasts, feel free to provide them.
Uh, when did this site become a Jesus site? I thought it was supposed to be about Los Angeles.
This isn't just a Christian issue -- every Passover I carefully count every single word on KNBC news. This year:
But the word "Moses" -- the whole reason for the season?
Bupkis!!!
I think we can safely blame the gay Scientology mafia for this blackout.
Tony,
Congrats on the 26 comments, looks like your strategy worked.
Why not try it again tommorow.
So much has been said already... I, too am suprised to hear this "christian persecution fantasy/war on christmas" bullshit playing out on LAist.
Not only that, but since when does ANYONE have any faith in KNBC to represent ANYTHING accurately?
Oh, Tony, you beer-drinking rum-sipping Christian, you!
because Christ is a lie and so are the idiots who believe in the lie.
FYI - Moses is generally not mentioned during the Passover service. In fact it is avoided because the emphasis is on the "acts" of G-D and not man.
Hey rational people... If you think Tony Pierce has been out of line with his Jesus postings on LAist then let his bosses at Gothamist know. Jake Dobkin can be reached at: jake@gothamist.com and Jen Chung is at: jen@gothamist.com.
Don't let this site get hijacked by some Christian whack job.
The more startling assumption here is that James Brown's death, which is a one-time thing and kind of a big deal, should take a backseat to news about Christmas, something which has happened this time every year for centuries.
The BBC World News website reported four or five updates on James Brown, but not a single one about Christmas celebrations. Why? Because while both are significant, only one is unexpected, sensational, and genuinely newsworthy.
And yes, this post takes a more editorial stance than the average LAist update. Who cares? Disagree and move on.
Tony -- I know you're kidding. Thanks for the convo-fodder!
How many times do I have to say it Rob? I wasn't kidding when I posted it, I wasn't kidding when I said I wasn't kidding in the comments, and I'm not kidding now: KNBC didn't say Jesus once during their 6pm Christmas newscast.
And Alex, email my bosses until your heart's content, all you will be doing is proving to them that they hired the right guy.
Why does it matter? I don't see the point of this post Tony. Do you think they need to say "Jesus Christ" for some reason? It's obvious in America that Christmas Day is the name of a holiday commemorating the birth of the Christ (even if it's not even close to what is generally accepted as his actual birthday). So what was the point of this besides so vague insinuation of religious persecution?
By the way, if we're all supposed to be sensitive to your beliefs, LAist should update it's holiday shout out calendar to include other religions. LAist Refuses to Say Happy Eid ul-Adha. Eid ul-Adha (December 31 to January 3, 2007) is celebrated by Muslims worldwide as a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham's) willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael (Isaac) for God
FYI
The traditional date for the birth of Jesus in the early church was March 25. Around 391 CE, the Pagan Roman holiday of the Sun God (Dec 25th) became associated with the birth of Jesus.
Tony-
I hope you're not one of these Christianist jackasses who feels this country was founded by Christians and that's why you're permanently outraged by Jesus getting short shrift from our "liberal" media. But in case you are that kind of jackass, here are a few quotes for you to ponder courtesy of "Salvation for Sale" by Gerard Thomas Straub:
"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine." - George Washington
"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." - Thomas Jefferson
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church." - Thomas Paine
"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature." - Thomas Jefferson
"The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give my assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." - Abraham Lincoln*
I know Lincoln wasn't a founding father but certainly his thoughts on religion carry some weight.
alex,
i know this is gonna kill you, but this post had nothing to do with my own religious beliefs.
i know that might be a difficult concept to fit into your giant brain, but what hell.
in six months that ive been editor of this fine blog i posted over 1,000 stories. if i had a religious agenda it would have surfaced many more times than on Christmas.
the bosses who you mentioned above have given me free reign on this puppy, meaning if i wanted to have a religion beat or omg a Christian beat they would have allowed me to have it.
LA is a religious city. there are thousands of churches here. there are millions who pray to a God and there are millions who pray to Jesus. it would be totally fair game for me to hire a dedicated Christian contributer to tell that part of the LA story, if i so wanted.
this story which you cant seem to shake from your conscious was about a newscast that said Christmas once a minute but never actually tied it to the fella who was actually being celebrated. they had done it in previous years, indeed, other news stations and networks had said it because thats what you do when you tell a news story: you tell the story.
i reported on their lack of reporting, and then moved on.
i invite you to do the same.
Hi all! I think that the most important piece of information here is that Jesus wasn't even born in December.
I will now impart the answer to one of the most enthralling questions of our time.
Jesus was born on April 17, 12BC.
I hate to seemingly discredit what I've just written but I'd like to mention a small coincedence. My birthday is April 17, 1979 and my name happens to be George Christopher. I've always had the nickname "Jesus" because of how I look but now it's just too funny not to mention.
Anyway like Tony said, it's just a lack of crucial details in the reporting that he was noticing. Oh and here is one more crucial detail that we shouldnt forget! Santa Clause and his various counterparts world wide have all been based simply on rich men taking pity on poor families that were in their communities. Now we all want to be Santa so the huge commercialization that happens every year is actually an incredible success of those men to spread the human compassion far beyond their own graves.
oh ya and christmas was meant to discourage and cover the pagen worship of the sun god. good one guys