So far, several TV outlets have picked up on the Jesus Tomb and are interviewing people about it.  The two who seem to be getting interviewed the most are James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici.  I know they have at least been on the Today Show and Larry King Live.

What I find is interesting is that the media is not going to the experts on this.  Cameron is an expert at making movies.  He is not an archaeologist or early Christian history scholar.  Why then is the news outlets spending so much time asking him about the evidence?  Why not bring on someone like James Tabor to talk about the tomb.  He is the one who is qualified to examine the evidence and make a critical  evaluation.

Then there are the people they get to disagree with Cameron’s ideas.  Whenever the media want someone to take up the other side of the debate, they call on a theologian or a church official.  That would be perfect if we were at the a place where we could talk about the theological implications of this find.  But right now we are only in the stage where we are sifting through the initial claims, and those claims center on the validity of the conclusions drawn by Cameron and Jacobovici.  Those claims must be decided on the basis of the evidence and the synthesis of the data.  It has nothing to do yet with theologians.  Instead of having Cameron debate a priest, the media should be getting Tabor to debate a qualified scholar who disagrees with the idea.

Of course, having a movie producer argue with a priest makes for more interesting TV.  One again, sensationalism is trumping substance because it will boost the ratings.  It seems that even when the news is something that is being touted as “the most important religious discovery of the century,” news outlets are more interested in getting advertising dollars than they are in serving the public.

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