TVC's Sheldon joins effort to help Murdoch, Fox block cable TV deal. (People & Events).

Although many in the Religious Right love the rightward tilt of Fox News Channel, most have little use for the Fox network, charging that it's a major purveyor of sleaze TV.

But at least one Religious Right leader seems to be willing to forgive Fox owner Rupert Murdoch for bring the nation fare like "Temptation Island" and "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" Louis Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, recently persuaded the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) to help Murdoch block a telecommunications merger that Murdoch didn't like.

Broadcasting and Cable magazine reported that Sheldon lined up NRB support to help block EchoStar's offer to buy and merge with DirecTV. Both companies provide satellite television services, and Murdoch had earlier tried to buy DirecTV. When he was rebuffed, he got to work stopping the merger.

Last summer, six religious programmers presented the Justice Department with half a million petitions protesting the proposed merger. On Oct. 10, the Federal Communications Commission blocked the deal, voting 4-0 against it.

Not all religious broadcasters were happy about the partnership with Murdoch. David Clark, president of FamilyNet and a former chairman of the NRB, wrote to Attorney General John Ashcroft to suggest that the arrangement was brokered by Sheldon.

"I believe," Clark wrote, "the recent stand by the executive committee on the National Religious Broadcasters to oppose the merger may be the result of a meeting that Louis Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, arranged with Rupert Murdoch."

Clark told Broadcasting and Cable that Murdoch met with Sheldon and other ministers and promised them he would air more religious programming if he were to buy DirecTV. Glenn Plummer, NRB chairman, admitted as much, saying, "Murdoch did give us assurances."

Asked to explain his partnership with Murdoch, Sheldon replied, "Fox studio has a long way to go. But Rupert doesn't own that outright. He can't control [it.] It's like an adult son."

One conservative media watcher has been critical of the deal. L. Brent Bozell III, writing in The Washington Times Oct. 28, observed, "Many family-oriented groups have met with and written letters to FCC Chairman Michael Powell asking him to do something about Fox's regular flouting of FCC decency regulations. Last February, 15 groups asked that the agency stop its pattern of dismissing obscenity complaints with minimal or no fines.... But missing from that list of Fox-fighting family groups was the Traditional Values Coalition. The `adult son' got no heat from them."