A New Model of Television News: Faith-Based News, "The 700 Club," and the Religious Right

• In Event: Faithwork, Fieldwork, Network

Abstract

A few days after assuming the presidency, Donald Trump declared that the mainstream media is “the opposition party” to CBN News Senior Political Correspondent David Brody. While Trump had expressed similar sentiments before, his comments served as a “full circle” moment for the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Founded by Pat Robertson in 1961, CBN was the first network in the United States to air exclusively religious programming. Originally a small operation, the network quickly grew, acquiring affiliates in cities across the country. In 1977, CBN became available via satellite, and launched its own cable channel in 1981, increasing its reach dramatically. CBN’s success was due largely to the popularity of "The 700 Club," a Christian variety hour with music, preaching, and interviews that premiered in 1966. The show was (and still is) taped daily, and aired several times a day.

Shortly before he expanded CBN, Pat Robertson decided to shift the direction of his network’s signature program to include extensive coverage of national and international news. The re-conceptualized show cleverly mixed elements of CBS’s "60 Minutes" and NBC’s "Today" in order to create an appealing, but still recognizable, alternative newsmagazine. This shift had many consequences. It broadened the appeal of the network (by diversifying its programming) and gave its hosts an outlet to state their politics (and not just their religious beliefs). More importantly, it pioneered a new model for television news, one that did not necessarily adhere to the standards of objectivity and unbiased reporting. After its transformation, "The 700 Club" emerged as a critical site of dissent for its hosts and its viewers. The success of the new format spawned an entire CBN news empire that provides programming around the world. In many ways, Robertson created the prototype for Fox News and other partisan news programming, and he even parlayed the success of his network (and his position as host of "The 700 Club") into his own presidential campaign in 1988.

"The 700 Club"’s transition to faith-based news programming coincided not only with the network’s satellite launch, but also with the emergence of the Religious Right as a powerful political force in the late 1970s. In this paper, I contend that "The 700 Club," and programs like it, served as an important and overlooked factor in the rise of the Religious Right by cultivating an audience that believed their perspective was not properly represented in national politics or by the national media. "The 700 Club" fostered distrust of the “liberal,” mainstream media and offered faith-based news as an alternative. By examining national and local coverage of CBN and "The 700 Club," the network’s own public statements, and the program itself, I argue that CBN seized the opportunity to project its ideology more directly through its news programming across the country and around the world by using the look and legitimacy of the newsmagazine format to promote their own version of the day’s events.

Author

• Kayti Lausch, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor