[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. In his view, only on rare occasions and with such singular personalities as Mother Teresa can the reality of Christ somehow overcome the sophistry of television.

Christ and the Media, consisting of three lectures and a transcript of the questions and answers which followed each lecture, reflects Muggeridge's considerable experience as a British journalist and author. He writes with imagination—would Christ accept the “fourth” temptation, an offer to appear on prime time television? And his insights are equally caustic: “… before very long children will be watching what has hitherto been reserved for the sick, the perverse and the depraved” (p. 53). Muggeridge concludes that unplugging the television set is the best Christian response to television.

Although Christ and the Media makes for interesting reading, it is not without faults. One weakness lies in the absence of any reference to scholarship in the area of communication theory and research, evidenced by the book's bibliography. Further, since he restricts “media” to mean “broadcast television,” Muggeridge apparently excludes such diverse media as videodisc, audio cassette, and sound-slide presentations from a Christian critique. He mentions radio only parenthetically.

Theologically, Muggeridge's doctrine of the incarnation does not seems to allow for the possibility that Christ might redeem the airways. As for his understanding of church history, Muggeridge is seemingly unable to perceive Paul's letters as the medium of the first century. Finally, while his fundamental thesis is essentially accurate—the television camera does distort—current literature in the field of television production is concerned with how the camera might also clarify and intensify the reality in which we live. For the Christian producer, this would mean clarifying and intensifying a Christian reality.

Should you read Christ and the Media? Given the foregoing qualifications, the book nevertheless provides entertaining insights into the manipulative nature of network television. And it would be useful reading before you blithely accept the next offer to appear on your local religious talk show.