Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

November 06, 2005

CBS and the Jesus Juice Connection

Apparently some who work at CBS don't worry about a little thing called "conflict of interest." From Newsbusters:

A CBS producer who led the network's coverage of the recent Michael Jackson trial has been marketing a brand of wine under the label "Jesus Juice," complete with a logo of a Christ figure sporting a Jacksonesque red glove, fedora hat, white socks, and penny loafers

NewsBusters.org has learned that Bruce Rheins, a high-level producer for such shows as the "CBS Evening News", and his wife, Dawn Westlake, began preparations for their marketing campaign while the Jackson case was still in court, registering a U.S. trademark for the words "Jesus Juice" in January of 2004, days after word got out that Jackson allegedly referred to wine by that term in attempting to seduce young boys.

Not only is he not worried about conflict of interest, but he doesn't seem to be concerned with good taste, either. Forget about offending Christians, as PC rules don't apply for them.

That a CBS News producer saw it as appropriate to put his name on something that many would consider to be offensive is also problematic. How can viewers trust CBS's reports on religious or cultural issues when one of its top producers is creating anti-Christian spoofs and attempting to profit from them?

That's a good question. What's next? O.J. brand gloves? The slogan could be, "Beat the rap just like the pros!"

Rheins is well aware of accusations of bias. On his personal site, the producer seems to take pleasure in seeing others accuse him of being unfair.

"Everyone thinks I am purposely biased against them. Yet they sure watch my work closely, to make sure I don't upset their world view. I take comfort in this inadvertent power I seem to have in their lives."

Emphasis mine. That pretty much sums it up, don't you think? And this is the kind of "unbiased" journalist we have in a high position at a major news outlet. Tell me, how many times have we heard about a conflict of interest between VP Dick Cheney and Halliburton by the MSM? Puh-leeze.

Thanks to Kitty for the tip!