Pre-broadcast backlash against Nova Bible program

Nova’s “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” scheduled to air Nov. 18 and still in production, is already raising the ire of the conservative Christian American Family Association, whose members have written scores of letters to PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler (scroll down). Apparently prompted by an Orlando Sentinel story that referred to a clip of the program and panel discussion from the summer Television Critics Association press tour, AFA founder Donald E. Wildmon sent out an “action alert” asking his flock to sign “a petition urging Congress to stop using tax dollars to fund PBS.” Wildmon wrote: “The Public Broadcasting System, probably the most liberal network in America, will present a program this fall that says the Old Testament is a bunch of made-up stories that never happened.” In a response in Getler’s column, series Executive Producer Paula Apsell said program “represents mainstream archeological and biblical scholarly thinking about the Hebrew Bible.” She told the Boston Globe she didn’t think the attack would get much traction. “I think when people watch the program they’ll find it much less fearsome than they expected.” (See the program website here).