Michael Vick & Finding Jesus

Those of you familiar with the online magazine Slate.com may already be aware that Slate has started a new video section titled Slate V. They use this part of the Slate.com site to distribute short video segments. They've done some good stuff.

One regular feature--and one that I tend to find rather annoying--is the collaboration with MediaCurves.com. MediaCurves takes video segments (e.g., political advertisements and speeches, news segments, press conferences, etc.) and shows them to a group of viewers who rate the believability (or some other criteria) of the segment while it plays. They then overlay a graph of the viewer feedback onto the video segment. Slate V features some of the these videos.

The latest is MediaCurves viedo on Slate V is one featuring Michael Vick's apology. The apology and the viewer response are mostly what one would expect. What caught my attention is the very end of the video clip, when Vick states:

Through this situation, I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness. And have turned my life over to God. I think that’s the right thing to do as of right now.

There's a lot to be considered simply in terms of rhetoric. One has to wonder if Vick and/or the writer of the apology thought the viewing public would respond positively to this statement of new-found faith. And, if they did, one has to wonder about the choice of "as of right now" as a qualifier.

In any event, the viewer reaction from MediaCurves is intriguing.

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