How can a newscaster ask someone if they "thank the Lord" in the midst of the destruction that hit Moore, OK?

In all fairness, most people in that area of the country are Christian. I wouldn’t have asked a question like that, but no need to get bent out of shape about it. It was a mistake.

Like most people, he was being snarky because he expected her to be a typical bible belt resident and say ‘yes of course I did.’

When people generalize about any group they make themselves look like idiots in my opinion.

^^ Most definitely. I hate when people generalize like that. I’ve been victim to it and it actually is a bit offensive.
This reminds me of a time when I was at a restaurant. This domineering manager was walking around the tables and approached one of the workers that cleaned the tables. The person clearing tables was Hispanic. The manager said to the man “There is a spill around Table Nueve.” The guy was like “What?” And the manager then said “Table Nine”.

@dxs Since I proclaim myself to be a Christian and a liberal Republican, every single negative connotation that comes with both of those has been heard hundreds of times. :)

There seems to be a general feeling that if you survive a disaster without being killed, you’re lucky. Whether you consider it luck or divine intervention, the sentiment is the same. Blitzer was trying to be a jackass. He succeeded.

@dxs I’m no more bent out of shape about it than the woman Blitzer was questioning was. That’s why I labeled her one of my heros of the event.

@dxs, @KNOWITALL & @Jaxk Thanks and agreed. Slate Magazine just chimed in on it as well. It’s like, “Oh Gee. We forgot to pray for you in time, but we’re on it now.”

I think Wolf had one of those moments when you let your guard down and he just slipped up. Who can blame him, that was a pretty overwhelming scene. She handled it extremely well. I’d cut him some slack this time.

@Adirondackwannabe Fair enough. Who wouldn’t be at a loss for words among such destruction?

@ETpro Yeah, I agree. Plus see how he was acting with the child. I think he just dropped the reporter mindset for a bit.

They should not. He should be called on it.

God gets all the credit and none of the blame. That’s what Satan is for

There was a video taken by one of the survivors as he came out of his storm shelter. His house was gone and as he panned around looking at the destruction of his entire neighborhood he said “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away”.
My thought was that this was the Christian way of saying “Shit happens”.

@rojo I disagree completely with that interpretation.

Hey, I am so inured to this crap. Nothing surprises me anymore. There was this local guy, Al Ruechel, reporting in the early 90s on a fairly powerful hurricane just off our coast. The storm was giving us a nice kiss as she passed by on her way north. This Ruechel jerk decides to do that thing where the reporter stands out in the middle of it all getting the shit beat out of them, endangering the camera crew, etc., when he’s knocked to the ground and this panel of aluminum flies past his head like a scythe followed by a couple of uprooted palm trees. He starts screaming like a little girl and gets to his knees and starts praying to Jesus to save his ass and make it stop. Then he starts asking his viewers to do the same. This goes on for quite awhile before he is cut off the air. The guy disappeared for few months, then showed up on the local Christian station doing interviews, interpreting news events through a Christian filter, etc. Fine, perfect place for him, I thought. Then about 5 years later he shows up as top anchorman on our local 24 hour news channel. I hate this guy, I really do. I can’t stand to look at him. He’s a far right conservative who attempts a toughness in his political editorials that sickens me. He plays macho, but he’s really just butch. He’s a chickenshit coward who will drag a crew into danger unnecessarily, then instead cutting so they can get to safety, he panics like a little drama queen and in a fit of chauvinistic religious fervor begs us to pray to make it all go away. I really, really hate this guy. He’s one of the reasons I threw my TV out years ago. But I still have to put up with the sonovabitch’s face on the TVs at the gym. I can’t understand how this asshole gets any respect.

@rojo Look at the Old Testament. According to the book of Genesis, God destroyed the whole world with a flood. If you asked a religious person, they’d most likely say that the tornado was part of God’s plan, or something like that.

I thought it was pretty funny. I never really cared for Wolf Blitzer. I really liked the Atheist answer. I think that Fox is starting to influence CNN and that’s the real shame.

I wish all of the media would roll up and leave them alone already. What a bunch of attention whores. It’ll take another disaster someplace else for them to chase it, for them to do that though. Or until they beat this one to death.

That was so staged it was sickening. That wasn’t reporting or news coverage. That was propaganda. He’s an idiot.

@marinelife He’s definitely been called out on it.

@KNOWITALL Which of @rojo‘s interpretations do you disagree with? They seem to be polar opposites. But the first is a generalization, and when understood as such, is mostly true. The second is a quote from an actual believer who survived and was at least consistent enough to acknowledge that if God can bend cause and effect for good, he can do so for bad as well.

@Espiritus_Corvus I wonder how such transparent buffoons win the greatest respect in the Media and religion as well. Then I hear how many Americans believe the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, and it’s all crystal clear. Birds of a feather flock together.

@dxs That’s the answer that doesn’t require or even allow for reasoned thought, and cannot be debated, so it’s a preferred refrain.

@Ron_C The fantasy that CNN will steal Faux Noise’s viewers is absurd. Fox will die. The truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and the lie can only be maintained so long. But CNN is nowhere near as dedicated to lying as the Fox propaganda operation.

@woodcutter You and me both. Cover what the rest of us can do to round up help for the survivors.

@bkcunningham Amen, sister.

@ETpro I doubt that Fox will die. Every time there is an election or poll you see about 25% of the people maintaining a hard right, fundamental religion support. That means that Fox can probably rely on 20 to 25% of the U.S. population supporting the network. That is a lot of people that are reliably nutty.

Fox News Channel.

@bkcunningham A depressing set of statistics. Sex sells. I find the morning show, Fox and friends entertaining if you keep the sound off. It seems that Fox bought all the blond female nutcases.

When you look at all of the likely voters 25% are reliably ignorant or mean enough to vote for Fox supported candidates.

I’ve always been annoyed by people being interviewed who are the sole survivors of, say, an airplane crash, and tell the reporter, “I guess that God was just looking out for me today”, implying that God looked down and said

“Yeah, I like this guy. The rest of the people on that plane?.....aww, screw them…”
.

@ETpro Her and I discussed it privately, thanks.

@KNOWITALL Good. Glad to hear it.

For those who have grown annoyed by the smarmy news coverage, there’s this.

@ETpro That is sooo sad sob.

@rojo Ha! Yeah, no matter how I slice it, the Onion always make me tear up.