Media

...The right-wing critics, on the other hand, received gentle and supportive treatment and pop-fly questions that allowed them to make unchallenged accusations or nudged them into restating the predetermined theme...

...Safer (to Philip Wheaton, an Episcopal priest who advises the NCC on Latin American programs): Do you follow the people when they have aligned themselves with Godless Marxism...

...Potter: But we do know...

...never any proof—just accusations and innuendo...

...In my judgment the 60 Minutes producers arrived at their conclusion in advance and then set out to prove it...

...I have had innumerable interviews and background conversations with many officers and staff members of these councils, and have come to know others from various professional contacts...

...Armstrong: I have no idea...

...This article appeared in somewhat longer form in Christianity and Crisis...

...Yet the sequence was used—for what purpose other than to suggest that, despite his denial, Armstrong somehow was being used by the Communist Party...

...When we give it, we show an act of faith and confidence in people...

...But Safer apparently had decided what the answer was before he went out to ask the question...

...For us it is enough that the money goes to organizations that are apologists for Marxist-Leninist regimes...

...Potter: I do not know what it is but...

...And they know that if they misused it, their whole credibility would go-Safer: But you wouldn't know if they misused it...

...Conservative Critic: You'll find the WCC and mainline denominational bureaucracies have consistently supported the . . . Marxist guerrillas...

...But who are these critics, anyway...

...Neuhaus and Robb of the IRD were interviewed on camera by Safer...

...It is true that both councils characteristically side with the downtrodden, and they conduct programs aimed at alleviating social injustice and correcting human rights violations around the world...

...And love can never exclude or deprive...

...I am speaking about the World Council of Churches and its own position...

...No, of course not," she said...

...Remember Joe McCarthy's "I'd say if a person walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, he is a duck...

...I didn't try to trace any money for weapons," she said...

...Here is Safer's exchange with Potter on the subject, based, as a reading of the transcript of the interview will indicate, on a composite edit: Potter: When Christ came, he spoke very firmly about all those things that prevented human beings from having their due dignity...

...An otherwise uninformed viewer would have reached only one conclusion after watching the piece: The NCC and the WCC, in violation of their Christian mission, had given money to support groups engaged in violent, Marxist-Leninist revolutionary activity around the world...

...Writers for The Reader's Digest, for two...

...John Wicklein is the author of "Electronic Nightmare: The New Communications and Freedom...

...If 60 Minutes had been interested in journalistic enterprise, it might have done some investigative reporting to prove its charges...

...To Armstrong and Potter he posed argumentative, hostile questions, and often used them to insinuate that the church organizations were actively supporting Marxist-Leninist causes...

...That, they may not know...

...H "Do You Know Where Your Church Offerings Go...

...head of the Salvation Army: [The World Council gives support to] a good many extremely radical causes around the world...

...subhead: "You'd better find out—because they may be supporting revolution instead of religion"), by Rael Jean Isaac, in the January 1983 issue, distributed in December...

...You bet...

...When there is a disaster anywhere in the world, and there is need anywhere in the world, we do not ask what is the religion or ideology of the people...

...I have found them, to a person, strongly dedicated to democratic ideals as we conceive them in the West, and strongly opposed to totalitarian oppression, whether from the Left or from the Right...

...For one thing, 60 Minutes could have traced WCC funds given to the Program to Combat Racism to see if they were used, as 60 Minutes charged, to support military activities of rebel groups in southern Africa...

...Almost invariably, these were offered to the press by the right-wing fringe groups within and without the mainline denominations...

...The Institute also sent out a newsletter, Religion and Democracy, on the back cover of which was stamped in red, Watch for 60 Minutes Program on the Churches...

...I asked him whether he had turned up any evidence that church funds were going to buy military equipment for Marxist revolutionaries...

...Potter: We give the money...

...The usual formula was, "Critics say...

...Before the piece was aired, the Institute on Religion and Democracy was aware of the tack 60 Minutes would take...

...We've never charged that...

...according to the criteria laid down...

...But you are judged by the company you keep...

...Armstrong: Since I have been with the National Council, we have spoken out against military repression in Poland, we have joined with President Reagan and the unions of this country in honoring Afghanistan Day and denouncing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan...

...60 Minutes allowed itself to be scooped, if one can call it that, by two articles in The Reader's Digest: H "Karl Marx and Jesus Christ," by Joseph A. Harriss, in the August 1982 issue, on the World Council of Churches...

...Critics feel that the National Council and the World Council lean to Karl Marx when it comes to giving certain financial support...

...Safer: Well, how did it get there...

...By judicious selection of interviews and careful construction of sequences, the producers loaded the piece to come up with the desired impression: These church organizations are doing the work of the international communist conspiracy...

...60 Minutes has the money and time to assign a producer/reporter to make this kind of investigation, if it wants to...

...But look at this on-camera statement: Safer: A great deal of the World Council and National Council would seem to— don't exactly belong to the Marxist system, but speak much the same language...

...Safer: Your name was on the preparatory committee...

...Potter: Well, we are all judged by the company we keep, but that doesn't mean it's right...

...It is this stance, I believe, that draws fire from political-religious groups financed by ultra-conservative foundations and wealthy entrepreneurs of the Right...

...For that act of charity, this Sunday, in Logansport . . . may be the price of a brand new Soviet assault rifle...

...H TheJessup Report, published privately by David Jessup, a conservative Methodist layman from Silver Spring, Maryland...

...But you are judged by the company you keep...

...Armstrong: There was no permission for it...

...I have shown how Safer led Commander Needham to imply that the WCC was providing money for arms...

...An "unwitting dupe," perhaps...

...We always thought this story was an interesting argument between two sides of an issue, and there were good arguments on both sides...

...Twenty years ago, when I was a reporter covering religion for The New York Times, I heard the same charges recently recycled by the IRD, Reader's Digest, and 60 Minutes: That the National Council and the World Council and the mainline Protestant denominations were in the hands of communist sympathizers or communist dupes...

...The slanting went beyond the usual point-of-view piece you see on 60 Minutes...

...But what if some of that money is used to do this man's work (over picture of Fidel Castro haranguing a crowd) or these people's (over picture of Soviet crowds carrying a portrait of Lenin...

...And he knew what he would be accused of doing: Safer (on camera): One is careful in this kind of report to not make the suggestion of guilt by association, to not use what are generally described as McCarthy tactics...

...We have spoken on behalf of the human rights [denied to] certain Pentecostal Christians in the Soviet Union...

...Safer asked Bishop Armstrong about one of the papers—a piece on an anti-apartheid meeting in New York that was "in effect, run by the American Communist Party...

...Copyright © 1983, Christianity and Crisis, Incorporated...

...In the complete transcript of Safer's taped interview with Potter (not all of which was used on the air), Safer asserts that Potter spoke at a disarmament conference at the United Nations at which the World Peace Council was represented...

...Needham: That's right...

...Safer showed the camera a number of publications and fliers he said were communist-inspired and supported by the NCC...

...And our own position is clearly spoken...

...I'll just repeat that...

...Safer's approach to those he interviewed reinforced the debunking technique...

...Throughout, the producers used unnamed sources to damn the church organizations...

...I noticed a pattern of support of totalitarian leftist regimes across the country and the world, and apology for this type of oppression...

...If that surprises you, it may surprise these Methodists even more (over pictures of congregation in the Logans-port church...

...Safer: But you wouldn't know if they did...

...Morley thought it was an interesting question on whether church money was supporting revolutionary movements...

...Safer: You are often judged by the company you keep...

...They draw on the same sources for their charges: 11 Richard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran minister, and Edmund Robb, a Methodist evangelist...

...That is evenhanded, it seems to me, though you'd never know it to listen to the critics...

...Some examples: Safer: They [Logansport parishioners] found some of their [collection money] was being spent...

...A provocative, sensational opening...

...Potter: Nor have you been able to prove that they have used it for arms...

...You may find this program to have unusual interest and significance...

...Maybe so...

...The producers apparently are playing now to what they perceive as a predominantly conservative audience...

...on causes that seemed closer to the Soviet-Cuban view of the world than Logansport, Indiana's, and they didn't like it...

...But the piece was constructed so that these individuals' statements could be knocked down by the "good guys"—the right-wing critics...

...I do not know Armstrong or Potter, but here, from transcripts of the 60 Minutes tap-ings of their interviews, is what they say for themselves: Potter: When you read the prophets, you read about this deep concern of God for the people and for any, whether priest or prince or leaders, who oppress or depress or deprive the people in any way...

...It sent out telegrams to the news media: This Sunday night CBS 60 Minutes will take the unusual measure of using two segments of its hour for a discussion of the involvement of some american churches with opponents of democracy on the Left...

...Witness the opening by Morley Safer, over pictures of a church service in Logansport, Indiana: Safer: This congregation is as generous as any—money to do God's work, at home and abroad...

...Interruption for reel change...

...Commander John Needham...

...We looked at the nature of the National and World Council programs" in light of charges made in letters that 60 Minutes had been receiving for some time from critics of the two councils, Galovic told me...

...Safer: So, somebody's trying to manipulate...

...I asked her whether 60 Minutes had found direct evidence that money from the World Council or National Council had gone to purchase Soviet assault rifles for Marxist guerrillas...

...The report contains most of the accusations found in the articles and in the 60 Minutes segment...

...Safer knew in advance of the broadcast that Armstrong had nothing to do with setting up the meeting...

...Kerry Ptacek, research director of the Washington-based Institute, told me the group had supplied some of the research for the CBS piece...

...Now that is more time and space than has been devoted to the violation of human rights anywhere else, to my knowledge, in this same period of time...

...Clearly, this was done so the producers could point to the interviews and say, "We were fair: We gave them ample chance to have their say...

...Not for good reporters, it isn't—but 60 Minutes' priorities lay elsewhere...

...I found none in this piece...

...That is the kind of basis that Jesus Christ made even more explicit to us in terms of the call to love...

...As a rule, the conclusions reached on the show are based on journalistic evidence, and often on documentation...

...Safer: And in the practical world, that may mean supplying those oppressed with guns...

...In his interview with Potter, Safer did not have in mind guilt by association...

...MEDIA John Wicklein The Gospel According to '60 Minutes' On January 23,1983, the Columbia Broadcasting System's 60 Minutes aired an unusual half-hour "double segment" in which it presented a critical assessment of the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches...

...Taken together, these articles could provide a content outline for 60 Minutes' "The Gospel According to Whom...

...Safer: (coaching Needham): But this determination [by the WCC] to help the common man could mean money for weapons...

...I asked the segment producer, Marti Galovic, whether she had gone to Africa to try to check this out...

...Taping stopped for technical reasons...

...The sequence smacked of Senator McCarthy's holding up a sheaf of papers and saying, "I have here in my hand...

...people are in need, and therefore we are there...

...Money from this collection plate, Safer adds, is "being absorbed into the coffers...

...Neither was presented on what CBS called "The Gospel According to Whom...

...Safer and the producers reinforced their theme several times during the piece, using editorial commentary, bits from interviews, leading questions to critics of the NCC and WCC, and hostile challenges to a leader of the National Council and a leader of the World Council...

...Conservative Critic: People are aroused about the radical left-wing views of the National Council of Churches...

...He acted as well as spoke...

...Taken together, all this creates a strong presumption that the piece was produced, at least in part, as a calculated response to accusations from the Right that 60 Minutes in the past has leaned too far in the liberal direction...

...Potter: We have not done that, and it has never been proved that we did that...

...On the program, Safer kissed off this lack of digging with: "It is nearly impossible to follow church money in any precise way...

...To answer this pattern of accusations, 60 Minutes permitted several minutes on camera—a long time by commercial television standards—to a leader of the NCC and a leader of the WCC: James Armstrong, a Methodist bishop who is president of the National Council, and Philip Potter, general secretary of the World Council...

...Never any solid evidence...

...We don't have any evidence to support the charge that the NCC and WCC funds go to buy arms for revolutionary Marxist groups," he said...

...of the United Methodist Church, the National Council of Churches and the World Council, and then surfacing in some surprising places...

...These passages were not aired on the 60 Minutes broadcast...

...Safer: You're convinced that the people in SWAPO who receive money from the World Council have this fine distinction about what they'll do with the money, because the World Council gives it without strings...

...Safer: Would you agree it [the Peace Council] is a Communist-front organization...

...They formed the Institute on Religion and Democracy with the support of right-wing foundations...

...Over the years, I have done a great deal of reporting on the activities of the NCC and the WCC...

...they did not support the thesis...