Tune In, Turn On

Published on March 1, 2007

Sharlet: Maybe it’s not money that corrupts, it’s media. Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Paul Crouch and his Trinity Broadcasting Network, Ted Haggard, erstwhile media darling, and now Pastor Mike Kestler, the man behind the Calvary Satellite Network. There’s something about broadcasting that seems to make an awful lot of preachers want to have tacky sex […]

Sharlet: Maybe it’s not money that corrupts, it’s media. Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Paul Crouch and his Trinity Broadcasting Network, Ted Haggard, erstwhile media darling, and now Pastor Mike Kestler, the man behind the Calvary Satellite Network. There’s something about broadcasting that seems to make an awful lot of preachers want to have tacky sex with prostitutes, pin-ups, and now, cheerleaders. Maybe there are hormones in radio waves? The latest tale is almost by-the-numbers, but that doesn’t explain the fact that it appears as local news in The L.A. Times (ably reported by Christopher Goffard) and almost nowhere else. This is a national story. But to make it more than yet another sordid preacher confidential, journalists will have to do some real thinking — this story is about more than lawsuits and lust.

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