Tammy Faye

Patrick and I turned on CNN last night hoping to catch a story about Tammy Faye, who died on Friday. Instead, we caught a 20 minute (at least; we turned it on in the middle, went away, came back, and it was still on; it seemed like at least 20 minutes, but I could be wrong) story about NFL player Michael Vick, who has been accused of supporting and participating in dogfighting.

CNN's coverage included, in a split screen with Senator Robert Byrd's condemnation of dogfighting in general and Michael Vick in particular, video of actual dogfighting.

Obviously that's the point at which we turned off the story.

When we tuned back in about 10 minutes later, they were still showing the same two dogs fighting - albeit, in a smaller window on the screen, next to the reporter.

What's up with that, CNN? It was disgusting and sad and I really didn't want to or need to see it in order to understand just how despicable dogfighting is. If the allegations against this Michael Vick character are true - and please note that I had never heard of him before yesterday - I hope that not only does he lose his Nike endorsements and his job, but that he lives the rest of his life in shame and, hopefully, jail.

...

Anyway, after all that, we didn't feel like sticking around at CNN to find out if they were going to show anything about Tammy Faye, and frankly, now I find I'm not really interested in CNN's coverage of anything. So instead I went online, and read a few news stories. I didn't see the Larry King interview - Patrick watched it, and actually advised me not to, saying it was too sad, seeing her so shrunken and sick. (Also, he knows how I feel about Larry King.)

Tammy Faye was one of the few religious people I trusted and respected, which I know sounds totally wacky. She seemed, to me, to have a truly good heart, amazing perseverance, and a love for people that you don't see in a lot of public figures who claim to love God. Maybe she was ridiculous - maybe she looked like a clown, and had that little-girl voice, and her version of "beautiful" was just so wrong... She had made mistakes and talked about her own failures and limitations, yet she still believed in something: and with gentleness and understanding, made that something she believed in, to me, seem a little bit less unbelievable.

I think she'd like that.