[Posted at Bene Diction Blogs On July 26, 2010]
The Benny Hinn and Paula White affair rumour story is starting to move slowly in the media.
If you came here through a Google search, by the way, I suggest that you please scroll back a couple of days and read Bene D's fine posts since Friday when the story broke. I also tried to quickly analyze the actual National Enquirer story, hard copy at hand, on Saturday.
The Toronto Star, which might have pipped the Enqurier at the post to break the story in the secular media, followed it up with a little joke at the evangelist's expense.
About an hour ago, the Christian Broadcasting Network reported on the story, with the lede that Hinn and White were denying the rumoured affair. (I predict that the denial of the affair will give the media the newspeg that they need to back into reporting the story. Expect more stories now.)
Bene D helpfully prints Benny Hinn and Paula White's full staments on the National Enquirer allegations in this post here.
Newspapers in Sweden, according to Google Sweden, have not picked up on the Hinn-White story. In something of more concrete significance in the long term, they have picked up on a theological critique of Hinn at the conference he is attending, which Bene D explains quite well in this post from earlier today. Hopefully the whirlwind from the affair will pick up this sort of thing too.
My guess...reporters learned of this this morning, are working their phones today, and we'll start seeing stories on Tuesday.
My second guess...Oprah will "libel chill" the current top National Enquirer story and the tabloid's editors are now beating in the bushes in an attempt to make Hinn and White a top story for their next issue.