Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee has successfully worked with copyright lawyers to get more than 120 videos featuring him removed from YouTube.
The development was reported by The Huffington Post, whose blogger Max Blumenthal discovered that a video he had made at Hagee’s Christians United for Israel conference last year was among those removed from the popular video Web site.
Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Hagee, confirmed that the videos had been removed.
“They were anything that contained clips of sermons, clips of activities happening at CUFI or John Hagee Ministries events,” he said.
Hagee is the outspoken pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio.
After his controversial comments about the Holocaust and Catholics were carried on the Internet, Sen. John McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement of his presidential race.
Blumenthal criticized the move as “a naked exercise in news suppression.” Engelmayer would not respond directly to the comments of Huffington Post writers but said the removal of videos followed particular criteria.
“It wasn’t done on a targeted basis,” he said. “It was done strictly on a formulaic basis of whether it fit certain criteria.”
He said the removal was not timed to the upcoming annual summit of Christians United for Israel, July 21-24 in Washington.
Rather, he said Hagee’s daughter read a story about a studio that had successfully challenged YouTube and had material removed, sparking the work by lawyers several months ago.
Blumenthal wrote in a Huffington Post blog that his “Rapture Ready” mini-documentary “contained no copyrighted material whatsoever.”
Asked about that complaint, Engelmayer said, “I have not studied the video, so I can’t speak to his video at all.”
Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted July 10, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Yes, if I were Hagee, I would not want anyone except my obedient followers to see/hear me. So very much of what he says is so very offensive. Yet, the money just keeps pouring in. He purports to take the Bible as the inerrant word of God…..yet, it appears that he skips over parts about gluttony, pride, bearing false witness, taking the name of the Lord in vain….to mention a few.
How said some people might think that he represents all Christians.
Peace!
posted July 10, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Well isn’t Hagee’s daughter the helpful one? Her discovery that a studio had video’s successfully removed from YouTube got her daddy’s lawyers to go after the videos. And wasn’t it convienent that they were removed before the Washington summit? I’m sure that was an accident.
posted July 10, 2008 at 8:31 pm
It seems there’s more to learn about this.
posted July 11, 2008 at 10:01 am
Thee are days when I wish the rapture would come – either to get rid of these annoying “I’m going and you’re not – nyeh, nyeh neyah neyah” types or to silence them because they are stuck here with us while some others went instead (and just imagine if they were gay, racially different, poor, or anything other than them)
As they say, you cannot unring a bell. Now that the word is out, I bet some folks will put them up here and there just to aggravate Haggee. So is he worried about not getting paid for his words? Or os he ashamed of things he said? None of this plays well.
The guy is simply another cheeseball TVangelist.
posted July 11, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Hagee is kind of crazy but videos can be damaging when used out of context
posted July 11, 2008 at 1:23 pm
cknuck-
“Hagee is kind of crazy but videos can be damaging when used out of context”
There is much footage of Hagee that is damaging in context. I attended services at his church once when I lived in San Antonio. I left horrified. That the man was preaching as a Christian made it that much worse.
Peace!
posted July 11, 2008 at 5:01 pm
agreed JohnQ it is painful to hear him
posted July 11, 2008 at 5:20 pm
If you cant use You Tube im sure there are other websites u can use for posting his sermons and things. This guy should be shown for what he is.
Ive seen him on tv. I tried to listen to him and I gave it a honest good try. I guess I thought it would get better, but after 20 mins had to change the channel. Too much hate. I know he does not speak for the entire Christian community but its scary to think that he has as many followers as he does.
posted July 11, 2008 at 9:32 pm
“…….it is scary to think that he has as many followers as he does.” Jay
It is strange that sometimes the more fanatical a person is, the more followers he gets. Hitler comes to mind.
posted July 12, 2008 at 12:21 am
This is strange because the Creedo for any tru-blu-white-shu TVangelist is the Hollywood maxim – The only bad publicity is no publicity. That he has any standards AT ALL is more shocking than anything else.
posted July 14, 2008 at 11:56 am
“videos can be damaging when used out of context”
So true, cknuck. Think of the damage done by the Jeremiah Wright videos which were certainly taken out of context.
Perhaps the Hagee vids could be moved to Xtube – they’re that obnoxious.