|
|||||||||||||||||
Cursor.orgMediaTransparency.org sponsor More stories by Bill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs' Media Transparency writersAndrew J. Weaver FundometerEvaluate any page on the World Wide Web against our databases of people, recipients, and funders of the conservative movement. |
ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz The Selling of Evangelical ChristianityLarry Ross' A. Larry Ross Communications brings Christian marketing into the twenty-first century"Moses stood there on top of a cliff, and as long as he held up his arms, the children of Israel won. Well, after a while he got tired, so there were two men that came and held up Moses' arms so they could win the battle. That's my job--to hold up the arms of the man of God, like Billy Graham or Rick Warren, in the media." -- Larry Ross, New York Times Magazine, April 16, 2006 You've probably never heard of him or his public relations company, but you've certainly heard of many of his clients. Over the years, he has represented such heavy hitters as the Rev. Billy Graham, Pastor Rick Warren of Lake Forest, California's Saddleback Church, Texas's African American MegaChurch Pastor T.D. Jakes, and the up-and-coming Ohio Pastor, Rod Parsley, the head of Ohio's Center for Moral Clarity. He has worked with the Promise Keepers, the international men's ministry, as well as such movies as "Left Behind," a film based on the popular series of apocalyptic novels of the same name, "The Prince of Egypt," and actor/director Mel Gibson's blockbuster, "The Passion of the Christ." He is Larry Ross and he heads up the Dallas, Texas-based A. Larry Ross Communications (website). For more than 25 years, Ross has been marketing conservative evangelical Christianity. "In 1981," the New York Times reported, "Ross began working with the evangelist Billy Graham and trailblazing the new world of Christian P.R." After a tape of anti-Semitic remarks Graham had made to then President Richard Nixon became public, Ross "counseled Graham through the...crisis." Ross also made sure that Graham's name never surfaced during the assorted televangelism scandals of the 1980s that involved Jim Bakker and his wife Tammie Faye, the Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, and other lesser-known preachers. Ross is still working with Graham: In early April, when the Reverend's book, "The Journey," made the New York Times extended best-seller list, "Ross could be heard pitching him as the oldest author ever on the list." The twenty-first century is a golden age for Christian-based entertainment: "The Passion of the Christ," which took in over $370 million at the box office, "The Chronicles of Narnia," which took in more than $290 million domestically last winter, and Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" books, which have sold more than 50 million copies, are the most tangible examples of evangelical blockbusters. In addition, according to the New York Times, "Christian music now racks up $700 million in sales annually. In 2004, sales of religious books reached $1.9 billion. Packaged Facts, a market-research firm, predicted that Christian products will generate $9.5 billion in sales by 2010." And now, there are Christian-oriented video games: In early May, at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," made its video game debut. The game "features plenty of biblical smiting, albeit with high-tech weaponry as players battle the forces of the Antichrist in a smoldering world approaching Armageddon," the Los Angeles Times reported. The game is based on the best selling series of apocalyptic novels of the same name, written by Jerry Jenkins, and conceived of the Rev. Tim LaHaye, a longtime Religious right leader. "'Left Behind' has the Antichrist, the end of the world, the apocalypse," said co-creator Jeffrey S. Frichner. "It's got all the Christian stuff, and it's still got all the cool stuff." "The reason that I think this game has a chance is that it's not particularly preachy," said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. "I will say some of the dialogue is pretty lame -- people saying, 'Praise the Lord' after they blow away the bad guys. I think they're overdoing it a bit. But the message is OK." "We hope teenagers like the game," LaHaye commented. "Our real goal is to have no one left behind." "There's an audience here," Larry Ross told the Los Angeles Times. "In addition to the youth audience -- that's the primary target -- there are parents who are concerned about what their children are exposed to and are encouraged by products that are biblically based," Ross said. "I would assume, if there is violence, it's the cosmic struggle of good versus evil, not gratuitous violence." Founded to give the 'Christian message' a fair hearing in the ‘mainstream media'According to its website, A. Larry Ross Communications "is a full-service media and public relations agency founded in 1994 to ‘restore faith in media,' provide ‘value-added P.R. that defines values' and give Christian messages relevance and meaning in mainstream media. "ALRC assists Christian-focused organizations, associations, ministries and churches in telling their stories through the Christian and secular media in the context of traditional news values. "For more than a decade, ALRC has remained the nation's most-respected firm in Christian-focused communications. The Agency operates at the intersection of faith and culture, specializing in crossover communications projects and processes emanating from or targeted to the Christian market -- both Protestant and Catholic." While Christian-based PR firms aren't new phenomena, Ross's group is among the few that are rising to the top in a very crowded field. Mark DeMoss, who worked with the Rev. Jerry Falwell for eight years before starting the DeMoss Group in Atlanta in 1991, also "enjoys comparable status," the New York Times noted. And while the groups, campaigns and individuals represented by Ross' client list are prestigious, it is "the Kingdom of God itself [that] is a client of sorts," the New York Times pointed out. "Publicity, marketing and branding are his ministry. So the real question becomes, Why does God need someone to sell him?" With the culture wars cutting a mighty swath through Hollywood these days, Ross is picking up a number of clients. Paul Lauer's Motive Entertainment, which "orchestrated the marketing" of "The Passion," enlisted 15 firms, including Ross's, to handle different tasks. Jonathan Bock's Grace Hill Media worked on developing the marketing strategy for "Narnia," and "other marketing firms include[ing] the Internet-focused BuzzPlant, based in Tennessee, and Renegade Idea Group, out of Texas. According to the New York Times, Ross "claims that in the past decade smaller firms have emerged that handle Christian P.R., which he differentiates from marketing (his firm handles both)... [he also] works with many of them and acts as a sort of Vernon Jordan of the Bible Belt, making introductions and forging strategic alliances." After working for 13-years at Walter Bennett Communications, where he first began working with Billy Graham, in 1994, Ross, and his wife Autumn, took what she characterized as a "bungee jump for God," and opened up its Dallas-based firm. The company currently has 13 staff members and carries somewhere close to 20 to 30 clients at any given time. "Ross says that he rarely chases after a client and is able to operate on the principle of attraction, relying on good word of mouth and referrals to win clients," the New York Times pointed out. "Ross, quoting Autumn, characterizes his clients as ‘anybody that we will be with in heaven someday.' While he declines to be specific, he does admit to annual billings ‘in the seven figures.'" During the past few years, Ross, whose "religion is conspicuously central to his work and life," has had an impressive run: When the story of Ashley Smith -- the Atlanta woman who had her 15 minutes of fame after reading passages from Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life" to her captor, an escaped murder suspect named Brian Nichols -- began to go south when it was revealed that Smith had also given Nichols crystal meth, "Ross helped Warren respond to this mainstream reaction by emphasizing their story, which, in the words of David Chrzan, Rick Warren's chief of staff was that "God can use anybody. Here, God used a tweaked-out speed freak to get a guy to realize he'd done something wrong and turn himself in." Ross has successfully mainstreamed the image of Bishop T.D. Jakes, the pastor of the Potter's House in South Dallas, one of the fastest-growing churches in the country, who is also behind the "Woman, Thou Art Loosed" novel, film and gatherings, and who created the Metroplex Economic Development Corporation, which sponsors homeownership conferences and organizes training sessions for would-be entrepreneurs. "After listening to hours and hours" of Jakes' sermons, "Ross realized that what might appeal to a broader audience were Jakes' efforts to economically empower African-American youth -- Jakes was a business story, in other words, the New York Times reported. "Not long after that, Jakes landed a Page 1 profile in the Wall Street Journal. It was the preacher's first major national exposure." Somehow, Ross is able to square his rationalizing of anti-semetic statements expressed by the Rev. Billy Graham's in his White House conversation with Richard Nixon, and being able to stay on message after the Ashley Smith kidnapping story broke down, with his deeply held religious beliefs. Although the New York Times pointed out that he "takes pains to distance himself from the more unsavory associations with publicists," it appears that he has mastered the art of all public relations professionals: crank out a good yarn for your clients, keep your clients out of harm's way from the media, apologize only when absolutely necessary and then, change the conversation. sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
|
MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
|
|||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
