Bye bye holy ghosts! TV station lets faith shine in report on family killed in car crash
It's a sad, sad story: a mother and her children killed in a car crash.
The tragedy had reporters camped out at the family's church, as a GetReligion reader noted in an email.
Folks from the church were interviewed, but the "spiritual guts" of what they said were edited out in most cases, the reader said.
Emphasis on "most" because there's a happy ending from a journalistic standpoint.
From the reader:
But then one interview made it to the airwaves intact, allowing the Gospel message to reach anyone who was tuned in to CBS Chicago. Every time I listen to the interview, I'm amazed that they actually broadcast the important part, but God be praised for that!
Now, let's be clear: It's not a journalist's job to preach the Gospel.
But it is a journalist's job to reflect accurately the essence of what a source says. That's the point here.
That's why CBS 2 in Chicago gets this reader's — and our — kudos.
What the station reported:
A somber procession into Trinity Lutheran Church in Crete took place Tuesday as two communities come together, as one to mourn 29-year-old Lindsey Schmidt and her three young sons. Schmidt and her boys died after a tragic crash at an intersection in Beecher. Schmidt, who was also four months pregnant, was on her way to a church bible camp.
(Since it's a TV report, we won't complain too much about the lowercased "bible.")
Here's the part that I suspect impressed the reader:
CBS: What do you tell people trying to cope with this?
“Well I have a lot of questions and sometimes we don’t have answers to those,” said Reverend Frank Italiano, Trinity Lutheran Church.
Rev. Frank Italiano has known Schmidt and her family for nearly two decades.
“The answers we do have is what Jesus has done for us. He died for Lindsey and those kids and he rose and he promises that we too will rise and that family will rise from the dead too. They have heaven. That is their home,” he said.
Italiano responded to the question in spiritual terms.
And to its credit, CBS 2 did not — as other media apparently did — edit out the God part.
