In recent years, Lance Wallnau, one of the leading figures advancing the Seven Mountain Mandate (7MM) ideology, has suggested combining the mountains of “Arts and Entertainment” and “Media” to make space for the category of “Science” to be included within the 7MM framework. Since this isn’t universally recognized among 7MM proponents, I have resisted doing so in this Seven Mountain Mandate series.
However, Wallnau’s act of merging two similar spheres of influence to allow for another highlights the fluidity of the ideology, as well as how the tactics of “conquering” each mountain are similar. Comparing the spheres of media and science demonstrates this point.
Sowing Seeds of Doubt
The most effective tool deployed to overtake both realms has been distrust.
In 1974, Gallup reported that 69% of Americans had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in mass media. In 1976, two years after Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the story of the Watergate scandal, trust in the press had risen to 72%.
However, by the turn of the century, levels of trust in the media had dropped to around 50%, where they remained relatively consistent until 2007. Then, there was a steady decline, resulting in less than a third (31%) of Americans trusting the media in 2024.
An analysis of the erosion of trust in the media would reveal numerous causes. However, it is worth examining the landscape of religious broadcasting during this period.
The Cost of Airtime
Before the early 1970s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required broadcasters to allocate blocks of free programming to community organizations, including religious groups. The idea was that pressing television stations and networks to fulfill certain public service obligations would ensure they were operating their businesses in alignment with the common good.
However, in the 1970s, a massive push to deregulate the FCC eliminated this “free time” requirement. This left producers of religious programs to decide whether they would cease producing their shows or purchase airtime.
The result was that many mainstream religious groups, such as the National Council of Churches, the United Methodist Church, and the Presbyterian Church USA, citing theological opposition to commercializing faith, withdrew from religious broadcasting. Additionally, the major U.S. networks that had their own in-house religious programming to fulfill their FCC obligations began to dismantle those departments by the late 1970s.
Conservative evangelical and Charismatic figures, however, took the other path. Ministers such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker began buying up blocks of time on national networks. Then, with the expansion of cable television in the 1980s, entire channels devoted to religious programming emerged.
Many of these channels included traditional religious programming, such as church services and Bible studies. However, some shows began to feature hosts sitting behind news desks, providing religious commentary on current events. The most prominent of these shows was The 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network, founded by Pat Robertson.
Created as a program for prayer and Bible study, The 700 Club gradually evolved into being almost exclusively a Christian news and commentary program. What began as an alternative, however, morphed into opposition. Rather than simply offering a Christian perspective on news, Robertson started to market CBN and The 700 Club as “journalism with a different spirit.”
To the casual observer, this is a benign catchphrase. However, to the evangelical and charismatic audience of the network, believers who view “spirits” in terms of good and evil, it is a not-so-subtle accusation hurled at traditional media organizations.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Robertson’s network intensified its attacks on legacy media outlets, which proved beneficial for business. So much so that non-religious networks, such as Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch, followed suit. (Robertson spun off CBN into a for-profit company and sold it to Murdoch in 1997.)
The result was that religious broadcasting empires sowed seeds of mistrust in mainstream media. Those seeds have grown into a forest.
None of this is to say that traditional media is without blame. Increased scrutiny on their practices has revealed mistakes that went unnoticed before. But the impact of religious media cannot be overlooked.
Preferential Treatment
Fast forward to 2025, and these religious media empires aren’t just allowed to exist. The Trump administration gives them a free pass at the same time Trump is waging war against their traditional, non-religious broadcast competitors.
In addition to successfully leading the charge to defund National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, Trump has filed lawsuits against CBS and ABC. Both networks, to avoid drawn-out and expensive court proceedings, have settled with Trump. This has all the characteristics of appeasement, which many believe is what led to the recent announcement that CBS is cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, whose host is a frequent critic of the president.
While traditional media is operating in an atmosphere of fear, conservative religious media and their secular counterparts are allowed to spread falsehoods with impunity. (Although Trump has recently filed a lawsuit against Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal for a story connecting him to a lewd passage he allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein as part of a birthday gift.)
Different Realms, Similar Strategies
The strategies used to erode trust in media, fulfilling a goal of 7MM adherents, have been replicated in the field of science. And, in many cases, religious media have been the leading purveyors of disinformation regarding science. This is notable in their advancing climate change denialism and vaccine skepticism.
This reached a pivotal point in 2021 when Dan Darling wrote an op-ed for USA Today, appealing to Christians to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as an act of love for their neighbors. Darling was immediately fired from his position as the Senior Vice President of Communications for the conservative evangelical group, National Religious Broadcasters.
As I have noted elsewhere, adherents of 7MM ideology represent a small segment of the population. But with the help of allies in other conservative groups and the Trump administration, they are meeting their objectives with a chilling effect.
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Senior Editor at Good Faith Media.
