I enjoy the silly games and activities Jimmy Fallon inflicts on some guests. Like the recent game of “Faceballs” with Julia Robert. I guess he’s taken some criticism for these stunts, but I find it very fun. A writer in Esquire agreed, saying the following about Faceballs:

“By the end of the segment, we’d been given a far more genuine illustration of what Julia Roberts is like than could have ever been achieved through one of the traditional sit-down interviews that have defined the host-guest relationship on late-night television for the past 50 years. We saw Roberts’s personality in action, reacting to an unfamiliar and unpredictable set of circumstances, rather than going through the motions of another pre-plotted interview. We even had a better idea of what it might be like to have a beer with Julia Roberts, the human. It was the late-night equivalent of ‘show, don’t tell.'”

Katty Kay, a British journalist, was on Morning Joe this morning. This is an American show, yet she was not speaking American. She was speaking British. I object to that.

The lead actors on House, Homeland, Hawaii 5-0, and Walking Dead are all British, but on TV they speak American. On “The Americans,” Matthew Rhys, a Brit, plays a Russian who speaks American with neither a British nor Russian accent. Daniel Day Lewis spoke American in the Lincoln and Mohicans movies. The new Spiderman guy is a Brit, but you know he speaks American, as Christian Bale did as Batman. I’m glad to see that Jon Stewart got rid of John Oliver on “The Daily Show” because he refused to learn American.

Why shouldn’t Katty Kay be required to learn American if she’s going to be on American TV talking to Americans? After all, they wouldn’t have someone on Morning Joe speaking Chinese or Spanish or Swahili, because Americans don’t speak those languages. If you’re going to work in America, you need to learn American.

I’m going to write my Congressperson.

A guy named John Haggerty wrote a great piece for Salon. He spent a month watching three hours of FoxNews every day, and not consuming news from any other source. Only Fox. He knew that FoxNews was very influential, and wanted to see the affect of relying solely on FoxNews for your view of the world, as is the case with many people.

He watched three shows every day: Fox & Friends, Shepherd Smith, and O’Reilly. That’s a pretty balanced selection from the schedule. He did this during October. His observations were quite interesting.

FoxNews creates an alternate reality for its viewers, who tend to reject any other news sources as the “liberal media.” Only Fox can be trusted. As a result of Fox’s selective coverage, showing only what fits a conservative agenda, viewers come to believe that only certain issues are important. (It’s well-known how Roger Ailes puts out an “agenda” every morning, detailing subjects he wants shows to talk about through the day. That’s why every show in the schedule pretty much hits the same points and in the same lingo.)

For instance, Haggerty found almost no coverage of the negative affects of the government shutdown. In fact, Fox referred to it as a government “slimdown,” and booked guests who tried to explain how the shutdown was actually a good thing. By watching only FoxNews, you wouldn’t realize the terrible impact it had on everyday people.

Haggerty found that FoxNews generates very little news. It’s mostly just commentary, primarily about the damage Obama and Democrats in general are causing the country.

Two major things FoxNews didn’t talk about: poverty, and foreign affairs. When the poor were mentioned, it was in a disparaging way (parasites, etc.). Fox rarely does foreign reporting.

It was alarming to hear Haggerty say that of the three Fox & Friends hosts, Steve Doocy “seems to be the brains of the three.”

He grew tired of the FoxNews outrage. “There is a constant barrage of stories of righteous people wronged by the forces of evil, usually in the form of government…the list of abuses perpetrated on the hardworking patriots of this country seems never-ending.”

Dear A&E:

We Christians have been bashing you for the past week. It’s certainly not in line with James 1:9, which tells Christians, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (violations of which, Phil Robertson would agree, is sin). Corporately, Christians tend to be very prickly, and you’ve been the recipient of our ire. So, with Christmas approaching, let me–just one solitary Christian from Indiana–take a more positive approach.

Thank you–I repeat, THANK YOU–for airing Duck Dynasty for the past TWO YEARS. You permitted Christian values and beliefs to be broadcast to millions of people. I hope other Christians have commended you for this, but perhaps their voices are drowned out by the angry voices crying, “Persecution! Censorship!” But I greatly appreciate your willingness to invest in a show which lets Christians be Christians.

Duck Dynasty is a huge success now, but at the beginning, it was a gamble in which you were investing millions of dollars. I’m sure many corporate voices cautioned, “A show about a group of bearded conservative Christians?” Yet you took the chance, and we appreciate it. I’ve heard many people talk about the way the Robertsons are able to freely express their faith. You enabled that to happen. Thank you.

After two years of airing Duck Dynasty, A&E earned the benefit of the doubt. But instead of giving you the benefit of the doubt, we immediately hurled invective and righteous indignation at you. As Christians, we should have stepped back and considered things from your perspective.

You, as a business, also have values which apply to all of your shows. Your main purpose is to earn money–we understand that. One of your employees, in an entirely different medium, offended an important demographic and violated a corporate value. He endangered your investment. Companies have every right to take action in such circumstances.

In fact, Christians believe in accountability, in policing ourselves. Sort of. Yes, we too often give celebrity preachers and entertainers a pass when they violate Christian values, forgoing the discipline Scripture requires. But you, a secular company, took strong action even though you knew it would hurt you where it counts–the bottom line. You exist to make money, and Phil Robertson was making you lots of money. Yet you suspended him anyway. I don’t agree with the reason you suspended him. But I respect that you did it.

I apologize that Christians are giving you so much grief right now. If you’re looking for Jesus in the flood of criticism coming at you, you won’t find Him. We are behaving badly.

Like I said, after taking a chance on Duck Dynasty, and after permitting Christianity to be on bold display for two years, you deserved better from the Christian community. You had earned better. I hope our harsh reaction won’t make you wary of airing more programs which involve Christians. But if you avoid anything involving Christianity in the future, I understand. And I remain thankful for these two years of Duck Dynasty.