Saturday, November 22, 1997

New PBS news show takes a serious look at religion and ethics

By Hieu Tran Phan

The Orange County Register

ABC's "Nothing Sacred" has grabbed all the talk about religion on television this season. The controversial series about a young, urban Catholic priest is considered a trailblazer in the entertainment industry.

Well, there's actually another new religion and ethics show on the tube. This one has broken just as much ground - in journalism circles. It's the first-ever national news show devoted exclusively to religious and moral issues.

What a shame, then, that "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly" has slipped onto the airwaves with barely a whisper of notice.

"NewsWeekly," which premiered in September, appears on nearly 60 public-TV stations, including 35 of the country's 50 largest markets.

While fashioned as a news show, the format of "NewsWeekly" parts from that of your average evening newscast. Each edition begins with a roundup of the week's developments in religion and ethics, followed by several major reports that entail field reporting and round-table discussions with outside experts.

Features regularly last five or more minutes, unheard of for network news, says Maureen Bunyan, chief correspondent for the show.

"I've been in the TV business for almost 30 years, and most broadcast journalists avoid religion pieces because they imagine them to be visually boring," she says. "That's hardly the case. Religion doesn't happen only in a church. There's a lot of active footage to fill the screen."

For two months, Bunyan and her colleagues have scouted the country for people, places and subjects to spotlight. Helping them is an advisory board of 26 theologians, clergymen, writers, journalists, leaders of religious groups and organizers of ethics committees.

The show covers both the prominent and relatively obscure.

Recent stories include a discussion of the moral ramifications of campaign fund raising; a series on Buddhism's expanding influence in the United States; conflicts surrounding sports teams' pregame prayers; a profile of Phyllis Tickle, a writer with eclectic spiritual views; a look at "gospel pop" music; an analysis of the pros and cons of private religious schools; and a report on witchcraft's renewed popularity.

Viewers flooded the show's phone lines after that last topic aired. The majority rebuked "NewsWeekly's" staff, but executive producer Gerry Solomon says he was happy.

"It proved that we have an audience, and the PBS format provides a rare opportunity for the public to have a say in programming," he says.

Solomon notes that viewers correctly anticipated the show's schedule by asking for features on Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and Hollywood's portrayal of spirituality.

"We don't pander to our audience, though," he says. "The difficulty is presenting news that touches many people and makes them think."

The thought of creating "Newsweekly" took shape in Bob Abernethy's mind three years ago. Abernethy, a veteran correspondent for NBC News, now serves as host and executive editor of "NewsWeekly."

"Studies have shown that the media are less than attentive to religion," he says, "and yet these are questions of life and death, political ethics, social equity. The public has never wrestled with them more prominently than today."

Abernethy found a receptive party in WNET-13 in New York, which produced the "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour."

From the start, he and Solomon insisted that the show practice serious journalism. They stress principles of informed enthusiasm, skepticism, balance and "the knowledge to always get it right," Solomon says.

"It's not 'The 700 Club.' Not fluffy, talk-show stuff. Not evangelizing. Not bent on converting anyone," Abernethy reiterates several times. "We want to be taken as hard-core journalists."

Solomon hopes "NewsWeekly" will spur commercial TV stations to follow suit. That way, he says, broadcast media will accurately reflect the pervasive influence of religion and ethics in everyday society.

Bunyan cites a more technical challenge. She wants additional stations to pick up the program and show it at reasonable times. Evenings are ideal, she says, while morning slots - especially on weekends - generate lower ratings.

She also envisions an hour-long broadcast so staffers can explore complicated religious problems in greater depth.

The present format, she says, forces staffers to exclude some important current-events news because of time shortages.

And Abernethy is betting on a three-year commitment from PBS stations.

"A program like ours needs more than one season to gain the public's trust. Every show improves continually as it develops," he says. WNET has committed to an initial run of 39 episodes, funded by a $5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. It's one of the organization's biggest financial awards, according to Craig Dykstra, an endowment vice president.

In early 1998, Abernethy and his colleagues will start soliciting funds for the second season.

All the aspirations sound great, Solomon says, but he envisions an even more ambitious enterprise: "In the lines of NBC, I want 'NewsWeekly' to be 'Must See TV.' "

(c) 1997, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).

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