WASHINGTON — Political reporter David Brody is punching his keyboard with two fingers, checking the Web for mentions of his stories. Up pops a liberal blog quoting one of his recent interviews. He's delighted -- until he sees the snippet is attributed to "Pat Robertson's CBN."
"Pat Robertson's CBN," Brody says in frustration. "We take that as a dig."
Brody does work for Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, and mostly he's proud of that fact. But stereotypes are inevitable when you cover politics for a network run by a standard-bearer of the religious right. Brody, 42, has made it his mission to confound them.
By turning his blog into a sounding board for presidential candidates -- testing their appeal to the much sought-after evangelical voter -- Brody has turned CBN into an unlikely go-to source for political junkies, routinely cited by the mainstream media. In a breezy style with a dash of irreverence, he embraces some liberals and takes aim at some conservatives. That surprises people, and keeps them coming back; his blog, the Brody File, draws about 25,000 page views a month, triple last fall's numbers.
To Brody, this is not just good journalism. It's a way of serving God.
CBN's stated mission is to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. Brody sees respectful, balanced coverage as one means to that end.
"Whatever stereotypes people have of Christians as hateful, intolerant -- all those words -- I'm here to say, 'You have a totally wrong perception. Totally wrong,' " Brody said. "Maybe people will realize that Christians are not so bad after all."
Brody took an unlikely path to Christian media.
He was raised Jewish; in a recent blog posting, he compared the frenzy on the campaign trail that greets Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois to the praise his family showered on him after his bar mitzvah.
In college, he began attending an evangelical church with his future wife, warily at first, then willingly. One night in 1988, Brody felt his heart racing, his soul reaching. He rose and accepted Christ as his personal savior.
Even so, Brody had no interest in joining Christian broadcasting, which tends to focus on televangelism, talk shows or commentary. But when he lost a job as a producer for secular TV in 2000, Brody was unable to land another. After two years of unemployment, he took a job as a radio reporter at the conservative ministry Focus on the Family, which fights abortion, pornography and homosexuality. "Their values and my values matched up," he said.
