The Media Ignores EWTN
A couple days after I visited the Washington, D.C. set of The World Over Live, the news, politics and culture show on EWTN that is celebrating 15 years on the air, the Washington Post ran a long story on the 15th anniversary of Fox News. The story, by Ellen McCarthy and Paul Farhi, was largely fair, which was surprising for the liberal Post.
After finishing the piece, I thought: the Post is finally learning.
It's taken decades of criticism, the rise of the internet, and cratering profits, but they may be starting to get it: covering stories that the media had traditionally ignored may not only be good journalism, but may actually make you a few bucks, also.
All of which is a preamble to The World Over Live. The show is on the Eternal Word Television Network, the massive global television network founded by Mother Angelica, a charismatic orthodox nun who lives in Irondale, Alabama. It's taped live at 8 pm on Thursdays in Washington, D.C. It is hosted by, and his the creation of, Raymond Arroyo, a genial, well-groomed man in his 40s.
Arroyo once studied acting under Stella Adler at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York before going into journalism. 15 years ago, at the time Fox was launching, Arroyo had the idea for a one hour live show that would cover news, culture and politics. A little over three years ago the show moved from EWTN headquarters in Irondale to Washington, D.C.
Today The World Over Live now has an international audience of 150 million. In 2009 it was awarded best religious show on cable by CabelFAX magazine.
In a different, less Christophobic time, Arroyo would be much better known in the mainstream media. But the fact that he is a Catholic on a Catholic network has prevented him from gaining wider recognition. I realize that on its face the claim that Arroyo and his show lack recognition must seem absurd.
Arroyo is well known by millions of viewers in over 90 countries all over the world. He's also a bestselling author of several books (the best, in my view, is Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles; unlike a lot of TV journalists -- Dan Rather, Ted Koppel -- whose erstwhile New York Times column would have embarrassed a high school newspaper -- Arroyo can really write.) He learned the craft as a writer for the New York Observer and a researcher for the old Evans and Novak column. He's a regular guest on Laura Ingraham's radio show.
Yet every time I have seen Arroyo on mainstream TV, he is cast in the narrow role of Defender of the Catholic Faith During the Present Scandal. He was the first to interview Mel Gibson during The Passion of the Christ controversy, yet Arroyo's insights not only as a Catholic but as an actor were often passed over for more hysterical witnesses. In 2007, noisemaker Kathy Griffin said that Jesus had nothing to do with her winning an Emmy. Arroyo was invited on CNN to talk about how her remarks were offensive to Christians. He was ignored by CNN in 2009 after the death of Robert Novak, who had been a friend, mentor, and onetime employer of Arroyo.
The very geography of The World Over Live speaks to the show's position in mainstream American media and the culture. The show is taped in the John Paul II Cultural Center in the Brookland section of Washington, D.C. Brookland is the home of Catholic University, Trinity University and many Catholic religious orders, which prompted people to call it "Little Rome" for much of the 20th Century.
Brookland is just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol, but to the media it may as well be in Alabama -- or the moon. One has to drive through black neighborhoods to get to Brookland, which is itself a largely black part of D.C. Most journalist at the bureaus of CNN, CBS, NBC, and even Fox have never even set foot in the place. I was once talking with a well-regarded D.C. journalist and mentioned that I was "going to Mass in Brookland." He looked stunned: "You're driving to New York to go to Mass?"
Except for The World Over Live set, The John Paul II Cultural Center is now empty, having failed shortly after its opening in March 2001. The opening ceremony was attended by President Bush and many Catholic dignitaries. None of them foresaw that just six months later the 9/11 attacks would occur, devastating the economy and killing foot traffic to the site.
Soon the 130,000 square foot building, a very sleek and cool piece of modernist architecture across from Catholic University, would be an empty museum. Walking around the grand interiors before a taping of The World Over Live, you get the sense both of peaceful spiritual solitude and being far away from the action in political D.C. (You understand why Clarence Thomas came to Brookland, to the Franciscan Monastery specifically, to pray during his explosive confirmation hearing).
Out of a studio on the second floor of this grand marble mausoleum beams The World Over Live. The show is largely ignored by the liberal D.C. elites who live just a few miles away (including the Post); instead, it addresses the real D.C., the rest of the country, and the world -- a considerably larger and more sane audience. (A video of my visit can be found here.)
Imagine the story of Raymond Arroyo, Mother Angelica and EWTN if they were all liberals.
In other words: a liberal Catholic nun starts a network out of a basement in Alabama. Through a series of what can only be described as miracles, the thing takes off and becomes a massive success. An unknown young journalist and actor who cut his teeth with, say, Maureen Dowd, starts a news show. He goes on to interview actors, politicians, Supreme Court justices and religious leaders.
If this were the case, the Washington Post would not need to mark the 15th anniversary of The World Over Live -- because Arroyo would probably be working for the Washington Post. Either that or he would be a producer and regular guest on NBC.
Not that Arroyo would want any of that.
Seeing him hustling around the studio, making notes during commercial breaks and charming visitors and guests, is to witness someone very much in their element. One senses that a move to the mainstream would rob Arroyo of the freedom that makes his show special (for the record, Arroyo has never expressed an interest in making such a move).
Far and away the best coverage of Pope Benedict's 2008 visit to America was conducted by Arroyo and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, the brilliant author and editor who died in 2009. The interplay between Arroyo and Neuhaus was informative, conversational and funny. They knew the topic, they knew the pope, and, when Benedict came to Catholic University and Brookland, Arroyo knew the neighborhood.
It's the kind of thing that a mainstream network would probably crush.
