Rick Warren on Easter Sunday: Playing Games

Something's Up - Besides Me!

Today I was up early to catch Rick Warren's Easter Sunday appearance on George Stephanopolis' program, This Week on ABC. I wanted to see how Warren would sidestep Stephanopoulos' questions about Prop 8, lies, etc. If it had been Chris Wallace on Fox, I wouldn't have gotten up so early. If it had with anyone on Fox, I wouldn't have programed my alarm/TV to wake me up at 8 AM on Easter Sunday morning simply because we all know that absolutely NO probing questions would have been asked. That's what Fox is famous for: generic questions lobbed gently to conservative guests. Conservative guests ONLY.

Minutes before the show, I signed on to my email and, in a Google Alert, read this:

Pastor Rick Warren, after making apparently contradictory statements about his stance on a gay-marriage measure, canceled an Easter Sunday appearance on ABC’s “This Week” just “moments before the scheduled interview,” host George Stephanopoulos told viewers.

Stephanopoulos said Warren’s representatives said the best-selling evangelical author was “sick with exhaustion.” The host told viewers that he wished the pastor a speedy recovery.

Warren’s appearance would have given him the chance to clear up his claim last week on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that he “never once … gave an endorsement” to California’s Proposition 8, a successful November ballot measure that banned gay marriage in the nation’s largest state.

Pissed. Both of us: me and George Stephanoupolos. GS did the right thing, the cool thing: he wished Warren well, then immediately slid into a hostage situation on the news.

Just about everyone in the media has a code of ethics and consideration which is: "Don't EVER cancel at the last minute." It's just as bad as being a "no show." Scrambling to cobble together a program at the last minute is a nerve-wracking affair. GS was probably clenching his fists underneath his desk while he wished Warren a speedy recovery.

Recovery from...what? Sorry, but "sick with exhaustion" is rather lame. Warren and his staff knew he had a hectic schedule and surely Warren knows his limitations. Then again, the bad dye job cold have affected his brain.

Just a thought.