The Rev. Jerry Falwell may be gone, but the sea of controversy that surrounded him during his life has not receded one inch.
In fact, no sooner did he abruptly leave the earthly scene (to go upstairs or downstairs, depending on your feelings towards him) than cartoonists had a field day. (We ran two, but quite a few were alike. A GOOD COLLECTION IS HERE.) And bloggers and commentators seemed sharply divided into “love” and “hate” camps, with little in between.
Cadillac Tight contends the left has a “rage problem” and contrasts it with conservative reaction ot the death of liberal columnist Molly Ivins. John Aravosis of the hugely lively and constantly-updated weblog Americablog labels Falwell “a bigot” and in this post looks at how Republican 2008 Presidential nominee wannabes have handled his death.
But the biggest batch of outrage towards Falwell’s critics who won’t say nice things about him now that he’s dead is aimed at writer Christopher Hitchens, a self-avowed atheist, whose latest
controversial book "God Is Not Great" has provided a lot of material for talk show hosts, panel discussions and seems to be becoming a kind of Bible (or…whatever) for atheists who’ve felt marginalized in America. Hitchens was on CNN and his comments on Falwell were absolutely withering.
Newsbuster’s Matthew Balan sees a double standard:
Over the past years, the liberal mainstream media has produced gushing tributes to deceased “secular saints” such as Princess Diana, John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Coretta Scott King. It would have been practically sacrilegious for these outlets to air any kind of immediate criticism of such figures. Yet, in the 24 hours or so since the death of Christian conservative leader Jerry Falwell, the mainstream media has given air time to every sort of criticism of the late evangelical. On Tuesday night’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” noted atheist Christopher Hitchens launched one of the most vitriolic attacks to date on Falwell. Among the terms Hitchens used to describe Falwell were “ugly little charlatan,” “bully,” “fraud,” and “little toad.”
Some of Falwell’s critics would agree with Hitchens (just read blogs or listen to Air America). But watch his appearance below and see if you agree or disagree with him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkAPaEMwyKU
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.