I spoiled Pat Robertson’s birthday.

I know, because he told me so.

On March 22, 2007, the day he turned seventy-seven, the televangelist and I sat eyeball-to-eyeball across the corner of a long table in a dark-paneled conference room at the Christian Broadcasting Network’s cross-shaped headquarters in Virginia Beach. Also at the table were two CBN lawyers and the editor, publisher, and lawyer from the newspaper I write for, the Virginian-Pilot. We had been summoned for a tongue-lashing over a story I had written about Robertson. It was a vicious piece, full of lies, he fumed—and what’s more, I had consciously timed its appearance to ruin his birthday. He demanded a retraction, a correction, an apology. If he didn’t get it, he implied none too subtly, he would sue.

“You guys are as crooked as a snake,” he sputtered. “I’ll have you all in depositions for the rest of your life.”

Bill Sizemore has been covering the most popular US televangelist for years.  This is a well written chronicle of Robertson’s rise to power, the melding of his political/religious/business/educational interests and the people who have come along for the ride.

The Christian with Four Aces
via: Right Wing Watch