What is the Purpose/Function of the Christian Media?

Obviously, there's never been in the history of the world the world as it is today. I think that Christians, in every era, are presented with unique challenges.

In our country, it is the media's job to uncover truth, and there never seems to be a shortage of it to uncover. A good example of this is recent work the San Franciso Tribune has done in the Barry Bonds doping case. It's not nice to expose baseball players for their misdeeds, and the reporters even went so far as to report testimony they had procured via a leak that was not supposed to be public information. The media seems to be one of the checks and balances in our democracy, really they seem like a form of accountability for anyone who is involved in anything nefarious enough to be scandalous.

But there's that word: scandal. It's a fine line between hard investigation and digging for dirt. I mean, what's really the difference between uncovering a sex scandal involving the president or one involving a movie star?

Ah, but what about the Christian media? Like it or not (and I don't think I do), Christian institutions--particularly music, but really any large-scale ministry--are modeled after our society in that they play to the big-names. Within the parameters of the Christian Contemporary Music industry, for instance, the market is driven by specific artists. Billy Graham, Ken Ham, Bill Gothard. You go to a concert because of the name, you follow the groups, you follow the singers, you wait and snatch up new albums from your favorites, you go to a seminar because of a name. While I hope it stops short of hero worship (a sermon tonight was called "No Other Gods"), for better or for worse "common" people latch onto those who can make their spines tingle via their vocals or their playing or their preaching and this creates a culture in which these special people held up.

Now they're public figures, recognized by fans of theirs. Now media springs up to support these industry. You have CCM magazine, the Singing News, Christianity Today, etc. Now, with the internet, people from across the country and world anonymously discuss their favorites, and blogs give opinion and analysis.

But should the Christian media function as the secular one does? Scripture surely doesn't address this specifically. Perhaps it does in principle, though. If something is wrong in a large "ministry" or with a Christian performer, should they be held publicly accountable? Should they be called out?

See, all this grows out of this celebritizing of Christianity. I don't know how we can get around it, but I don't know if it's right.

But if a "minister" is a celebrity, and living sinfully, for instance, something needs to be done. I mean, the media's just searching for the truth, right? They just want transparency, supposedly. And those things are good. So ... what?