SOURCE: Meister, J. W. Gregg. “Christ and the Media.” Theology Today 36, no. 4 (April 1979): 137-38.

In the following review of Christ and the Media, Meister criticizes Muggeridge for failing to put his criticism of television in academic or historical context.

When the Berlin Wall was first constructed, two East German policemen dramatically leaped off the wall to freedom. According to eyewitness accounts, the soldiers had to jump three times before their leap was deemed visually acceptable for the television news team.

Lacing his book, Christ and the Media, with such anecdotes, Malcolm Muggeridge underscores his thesis that not only does the camera always lie, but it must by its own nature distort reality. Therefore, Muggeridge takes the position that the “reality of Christ” cannot be “injected into the fantasy of the media.” Even to work as a Christian within the media to reform the media is destined to fail...