Not that any serious student of the Shroud of Turin is going find anything new or particularly meaningful in the ABC Good Morning America coverage, but our good friend and frequent contributor on this blog, Russ Breault, was great.
But what is the news story, here?
- Is the story the upcoming exhibition tomorrow with billions set to watch it live? Yes ABC said ‘billions’ along the bottom of the screen.
- Or is the story that investigators at the University of Padua have shown that the shroud might be real despite carbon dating in the past? Did ABC actually say that skeptics call it the Fraud of Turin?
- Or is the story the iPhone app, Shroud 2.0? It was barely mentioned.
I don’t think the planners of the exhibition in Turin were counting on the Fanti’s book getting all this attention. Has it overshadowed Turin’s plans for Saturday or provided needed publicity?
First, congratulations to Russ for a great job. I think the main take-away message(s) the average viewer will most likely have is “they’re now saying it might be real” and “it’s going to be shown on tv, for the first time in 40 years.” I wonder how many might flip through the cable channels looking for it this weekend, not realizing it is primarily accessible through weblinks; the report did say Italian tv, but I think you had to listen pretty closely to catch it. I am still somewhat disappointed that EWTN (as of last week) is not planning to carry the broadcast-for those interested, it can be found easily enough by searching around on the web, but I would have liked to have seen it rate a higher priority on a Catholic channel, thought it might have been given a boost with Pope Francis giving the intro. Looking forward to checking out the app. Overall, I’d vote good publicity, I think the news story is it might be worth another look to those who may have previously dismissed it.
Great Job Russ. I believe the Shroud image seen in this telecast was a duratran print fabricated at Eastman Kodak using back then the state of the art Kodak’s Premier System. Photo by Vern Miller.
Agreed, Barrie Schwortz. Can they be replicated using the same conditions as the scientific method will validate or reject. Funny this has been hyped around Good Friday. Also funny is
that all previous research and carbon testing is suddenly wrong. This was done by very respected institutions. Also, Fanti’s claims sound bogus. Time will tell, not the snap conclusions of some in the news media.