Washington – David Brody is punching his keyboard with two fingers, checking the Web for mentions of his stories. Up pops a liberal blog quoting one of his interviews.
He’s delighted, until he sees the snippet is attributed to “Pat Robertson’s CBN.” “We take that as a dig,” Brody says.
Stereotypes are inevitable when you cover politics for Christian Broadcasting Network, run by a standard-bearer of the religious right. Brody, 42, has made it his mission to confound them.
With his blog a sounding board for candidates testing their appeal to the evangelical voter, Brody has turned CBN into an unlikely source for political junkies. In a breezy style, he embraces some liberals and takes aim at some conservatives. That surprises people and keeps them coming back; his blog, the Brody File, draws 25,000 views a month.
To Brody, this is not just good journalism. It’s a way of serving God.
CBN’s stated mission is to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. Brody sees respectful, balanced coverage as one means to that end.
“Whatever stereotypes people have of Christians as hateful, intolerant – all those words – I’m here to say, ‘You have a totally wrong perception. Totally wrong,”‘ he said.
He was raised Jewish; in a blog posting, he compared the frenzy over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois to the praise his family showered on him after his bar mitzvah.
In college, he began attending an evangelical church with his future wife, warily at first. One night in 1988, Brody said, he rose and accepted Christ as his personal savior.
Even so, Brody had no interest in joining Christian broadcasting, which tends to focus on televangelism, talk shows or commentary. But when he lost a job as a producer for secular TV in 2000, Brody was unable to land another. After two years, he took a job as a radio reporter at the conservative ministry Focus on the Family, which fights abortion, pornography and homosexuality. “Their values and my values matched up,” he said.
He moved to CBN a year later, in July 2003, to report for “The 700 Club,” an hour-long blend of fundraising pitches, news and inspirational features that claims a weekday audience of nearly 1 million.
