From the Local News To a Higher Calling

When the three top Democratic presidential candidates talked about faith last week at a forum moderated by CNN's Soledad O'Brien, David Brody recalls being "flabbergasted."

"For the next hour I sat in my seat in awe," the television correspondent wrote on his blog. "There was conservative Christian 'red meat' everywhere. . . . I mean, I was waiting for Soledad O'Brien to pull a 'Mission Impossible' move, take off her face mask and reveal . . . James Dobson!"

Brody occupies an unusual niche. He is a reporter for the Christian Broadcasting Network who has forged good relations with Democrats. He is a wisecracking blogger who is part of Pat Robertson's religious empire. And he was raised as a Jew, although he now believes in Jesus Christ as his lord and savior.

Brody is, in short, a Christian journalist with chutzpah.

While his reports appear not just on a daily CBN newscast but on Robertson's "700 Club," Brody says, "I bury my head and do my job. I'm talking to Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, people on both sides of the aisle. I'm kind of in my own world. . . .

"The perception by Democratic candidates -- and it's not the reality -- is that it's just a conservative religious audience," Brody says at the network's modern Washington bureau on M Street NW. "My fervent desire is to explain to them that there's a treasure-trove of people out there waiting to hear from them. They can't pigeonhole CBN."

Still, Brody admits he faces a tougher sell with Democrats than with Republicans. While he has interviewed John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback -- and is scheduled to meet with Rudy Giuliani in two weeks -- he has yet to score a sit-down with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John Edwards.

But Brody has won converts. Obama spokesman Bill Burton calls him "absolutely fair. He makes a real effort to ensure that all sides of a debate are heard. I would say he's a welcome addition to a media community that can be too caught up in the spin of the day."

Brody, who is more finely attuned to religious issues than the average campaign reporter, has scored some scoops by working his GOP sources. Two weeks ago, he posted online 13-year-old videos of Romney -- slipped to him by a rival campaign, Brody says -- in which the former Massachusetts governor sounded far more liberal than he does today. Brody also reported that fliers calling for Giuliani's defeat if the Republicans nominate him were distributed at a meeting of the conservative Free Congress Foundation.

And how many reporters, other than Brody, asked the Republican contenders if they support abstinence-only education programs targeted for extinction by congressional Democrats? "We've challenged candidates to speak on some of these issues that maybe the mainstream media won't touch," Brody says.

His Brody File blog drew 75,000 visits last month, nearly quadruple the number in February. And he isn't shy about spewing opinions. Brody questioned whether "religious bias" was involved when some House members pressed former Justice Department official Monica Goodling about hiring lawyers from her alma mater, Regent University, which was founded by Robertson. "Let's be real here," Brody wrote. "Do you really think if Monica Goodling went to let's say, Vassar or Virginia Tech . . . that she would have been subjected to those comments?"

Brody, 42, is a sharp-elbowed New Yorker who knocked around the business for two decades before landing an on-air job. He started out with two local radio stations -- all-news WINS and sports station WFAN. Determined to break into television, Brody moved to Colorado Springs for a low-level job, eventually rising to producer, and in 1997 became weekend news producer for a Denver station.