Posted on 11/07/2005 7:39:08 AM PST by RatherBiased.com
A CBS producer who led the network's coverage of the recent Michael Jackson trial has been marketing a brand of wine under the label "Jesus Juice," complete with a logo of a Christ figure sporting a Jacksonesque red glove, fedora hat, white socks, and penny loafers
NewsBusters.org has learned that Bruce Rheins, a high-level producer for such shows as the "CBS Evening News", and his wife, Dawn Westlake, began preparations for their marketing campaign while the Jackson case was still in court, registering a U.S. trademark for the words "Jesus Juice"
in January of 2004, days after word got out that Jackson allegedly referred to wine by that term in attempting to seduce young boys.
A year later, the couple registered (under Westlake's name) the web domain JesusJuice.biz, apparently with the intent of partnering with a wine maker to create a product line bearing the Jesus Juice name, in a partnership or by purchasing the trademark.
"Should you want to start something with us (i.e. you're a vintner with a sense of humor, but a seriously good line of wines, visit us here and drop a note…In the meantime, we'll be moonwalking over our own grapes.)"
Westlake wrote in an online diary entry on her personal web site.
The trial ended June 13, 2005 when Jackson was acquitted of all charges.
Rheins's marketing of Jesus Juice wine (and apparel) raises some troubling journalistic issues since he was attempting to profit from a story which he was personally covering for the "CBS Evening News."
"You can't be the lead producer on the West Coast by day and then turn around and sell t-shirts and wine by night," says a CBS insider.
Jennifer Siebens, the network's L.A. bureau chief, had to have known about his extracurricular activities, the insider says.
"It's a very small bureau. There's no way Siebens and others wouldn't have known he was doing this. He and his wife hang out with them all the time. Now, had the people in New York known, that's another story. He'd probably have been fired."
That a CBS News producer saw it as appropriate to put his name on something that many would consider to be offensive is also problematic. How can viewers trust CBS's reports on religious or cultural issues when one of its top producers is creating anti-Christian spoofs and attempting to profit from them?
Rheins is well aware of accusations of bias. On his personal site, the producer seems to take pleasure in seeing others accuse him of being unfair.
"Everyone thinks I am purposely biased against them. Yet they sure watch my work closely, to make sure I don't upset their world view. I take comfort in this inadvertent power I seem to have in their lives."
If this report is verifiable, where is a photo of the wine bottle with this label or where can this bottle be purchased?
Has anyone tried my Mohammed Muffins yet?
It is only wine until consecrated.
And a CBS producer doesn't have the authority to consecrate it.
He can call it "kool-aid" for all I care.
Hey pal, I've never even heard of you til now and never watch CBS.
"This is so incredibly offensive. I want to puke."
My sentiments precisely.
Moral Absolutes Ping.
Didn't read more than a couple of sentences; my stomach often doesn't feel that settled in the AM. I did happen to glance at the picture, unfortunately.
Free speech should not extend to outright blasphemy. I know, I know - libertarians would not agree. But this is bad. I hope no one buys this crap. Later (have to run out the door in a minute) I'll post some stuff about laws against blasphemy that were in place until not that long ago.
It's one thing to disagree - even very pointedly, with sharp language - about any religion or spiritual figure. It's another thing entire to mock, with the purpose of denigrating and causing harm (and there's the financial gain as well) a person who millions of people worship as the Son of God, and whose teachings illuminate this dark world.
Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.
(Those people have just bought a very, very bad future for themselves, and everyone connected with this hellish venture.)
Repellent to the last degree.
Bruce Rheins (81) - producer of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather
Bruce Rheins - (photo below link)
http://tinyurl.com/b8bud
Biography:
Dawn Westlake is an actress/writer/producer/director and President of Ron de Cana Productions, Inc. in Los Angeles. She has made five films in the past four years, which have won 19 prizes. She received the Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for an interview with former Pres. Jimmy Carter on the subject of human rights violations in 1987. Westlake graduated with honors from Northwestern University's School of Speech.
Contact Information:
Dawn Westlake
Director/Producer
Ron de Cana Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles, CA 90036-4616
E-mail: dawnwestlake@hotmail.com
http://www.dawnwestlake.com
This fellow has no guts. He mocks a nonviolent group knowing that a "Christian boycott" of his product would have no impact. He then sets himself up as some sort of liberal prophet.
If he produced a beer that had a label with a pig and called it "Allah's Ale" he'd get his throat cut. Coward, poser, and creep.
Look, there has been hand-wringing about this since the Fatty Arbuckle trial, the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping trial, the coverage of the death of John Lennon, and on and on. If you had focused on too much attention to the likes of people like Scott Peterson or Natalee Holloway, you'd have a point; but the coverage of the criminal trial of someone who once was and probably still is the most famous person on the planet fits the definition of newsworthy. I don't read every single newspaper in America, but I would wager the only times it made the front page in most papers was when jury selection started, when the trial started, when the trial ended, and the verdict. I think it's a far stretch to say things like Jackson are "crowding out legitimate news". The situation, Mr. Watson, is that celebrity news events are AMPLIFIED by things like cable TV gab shows and a recent increase in celebrity-based television and print outlets... but it is NOT "crowding out legitimate news" from newspapers.
And word to the guy who pointed out that you quoted Edward Asner to back up your point; if it was intended to be ironic, you missed.
Posted by Bruce Rheins at July 27, 2005 6:17 PM
******
DW (Dawn Westlake): A Life of Death is based on the Studs Terkel Award-winning poem by my father, * Donald Westlake. It addresses the tragic irony of waging war to establish peace-- something that's been going on for centuries, if not millennia! I was moved to make the film after my husband, Bruce Rheins, got back from 3.5 months in Kuwait and Iraq where he was covering the war for a major network news organization.
* Donald Westlake is a novelist, screenwriter and book reviewer, Oscar-nominated for The Grifters.
Westlake has been married three times. In 1979 he married Abigail Adams; they have fours sons. With Abigail Adams he has organized murder-mystery weekends and two of their plots have been novelized as TRANSYLVANIA STATION (1986) and HIGH JINX (1986). Westlake has also written soft-porn novels as Alan Marshall and Edwin West, political thrillers, a children's book, and a biography of Elizabeth Taylor under the alias John B. Allan.
JESUS JUICE PING!!
He could be bought for a case of t-shirts.
Just when you thought you had seen it all....PING!!!
Other tasteless wines.
Like I said, I'll stick to my bourbon.
i'm more offended by the visual label than by the name "Jesus Juice."
Whatever, God knows who Bruce Rheins is and where he lives.
Switch to scotch.
I think this is the least of CBS's credibility worries.
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