For a while there was a protest made on the New York Times Message Boards. This was part of it. The rest of it to follow.
ACLU statement
What needs to happen here is for the ACLU to take a stand about equity of all kinds. In the years 2002 and 2003 the current administration used the media to promote an illegal war. Since that time, others who are profiting from the influence of this administration and its extreme right leanings such as the ‘faith based’ initiatives have promoted religious bigotry, segregation and racism. I firmly believe there is a profound hatred by Bush and his administration for any religion of the world except White Evangelical Christianity.
Organizations such as the ACLU need to examine the use of public access including public airways, both radio and television including where there are religious stations regardless the denomination or those that advocate religious preference in their broadcasting. The bias demonstrated by this administration and it’s subsequent supporters who are supposed to be neutral in a country whereby there is a separation by design of church and state need to offer ‘equal time’ to other belief systems when accessing the public openly.
Currently there is no way for other faiths or beliefs to have access to the same audiences where intolerance is being preached. Not long ago this would have been unthinkable, but, the Government Faith Based monies open the concept of organized political operatives to churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. There is no way to know if the monies are being distributed equally OR if the social ‘good’ of the country is being served. In actuality, government is now funding ‘political action committees’ that serve the incumbent president. We know for a fact the churches of the country have become more interested in promoting voting and ‘swaying’ their parishioners to vote in favor of this administration in fear of losing their new found dollars.
Religion is a personal preference and not government dictates, but the potency in the electorate has become so profound that the media that least interests the public through paid cable networks now panders to that population and is promoting wars without cause to hold their viewership. This is an outrage and spawned by the ‘sick’ little man in the Oval Office who can’t even support the military he currently has engaged in an illegal war instigated by the same stations assisting with promotion of more of the same.
