Some good news for Pat Robertson and the Christian Broadcasting Network:
Ivory Coast: Good News During Civil War
By CBN Ivory Coast…With strong support from pastors of various denominations in Ivory Coast, CBN began to make preparation for an evangelistic media campaign that would take place during the Christmas holidays. What no one expected though, was that the country would erupt into civil war.
….CBN WorldReach Director Peter Darg writes …”With a complete curfew from sun down to sun up, everybody is trying to race around to get to work, school or shopping and mostly creating massive traffic tie ups. After dark, everyone is at home watching TV, so the blitz (media campaign)timing is perfect in this regard (imagine what the USA TV networks would give to force everyone in the country to be in their homes every night watching the TV or face being shot).”
…CBN is also providing a series of 20 half-hour radio programs for the FM station in Abijan, Radio Frequence Vie. These radio programs are based on Pat Robertson’s best selling book and TV series Answers.
As I’ve blogged previously, Robertson sees the conflict in Ivory Coast in terms of a religious war between Muslim “rebels” and a Christian president: back in January, CBN ran a piece explaining that in the recent election Gbagbo “only lost to the Muslim challenger because of voter fraud” as concocted by “Saudi Arabia” and “Muslims in France”. The piece came with a softball interview with Gbagbo, which was “broadcast on Ivorian National Television”. Robertson’s version of the story has also been picked up by WorldNetDaily, which sees a United Nations conspiracy at work. The view that the west ought to continue to support Gbagbo will doubtless be strengthened by the recent massacre in the town of Duekoue, which appears to have been perpetrated by soldiers loyal to president-elect Alassane Ouattara; however, Gbagbo’s troops are also responsible for large numbers of deaths.
CBN’s support for Gbagbo is also a matter of self-interest:
It all started a little more than a year ago when the First Lady of Ivory Coast visited The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in Virginia Beach, Virginia on a special mission. Mrs. Somone Gbagbo, the wife of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, wanted CBN to provide Christian TV programs for her country. In return she would guarantee that the programs would air on national television. To respond to the immediate need, episodes of The 700 Club were regularly dubbed into French and shipped for broadcast. The goal, however, was to have an African program that would be tailored for the region with French African hosts. Within a few months, Raymond Kauffee from Cameroon and Macy Domingo from Ivory Coast began hosting Le Club 700 that now airs in French speaking countries throughout the region.
The phrase “the wife” should actually be “a wife” – he has two of them.
(Hat tip: Terry Krepel at Media Matters. Incidentally, Peter Darg previously appeared on this blog in 2006)
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