Friday, March 23, 2007

Norwich Atheist responds to appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Atheists meet after Griswold bell ringing suit

by News Channel 8's Tina Detelj
Posted Mar. 22, 2007
5:57 PM

(Griswold-WTNH) _ A decade old holiday tradition sparked outrage by a group of atheists and made news nationwide. Now the group is meeting to talk about whether their message was lost in the media hype.

Little did Bill Russell know his fight to silence the bells at a Jewett City church would land him in the national spotlight on a comedy show.

"Never seen it before in my life," Russell said.

The Daily Show's 'Sam on Your Side' came to Jewett City to take a tongue-in-cheek look at this Norwich atheist's claim that the church bells are unconstitutional because the sound system is owned by the town.

Russell says some of what he said was taken out of context and the questions were confusing. From the show:

"If you were me?"
"Yup."
"Would you still be on my side?"
"I guess?"

"Because of the way she worded it, it was almost like would I be on her side, and I didn't know what her side was," Russell said.

He also found it odd to see basketball great Bill Russell on the show.

From the show:
"What do you think about his hat?"
"It sucks."

"So he didn't like it. Big deal," Russell said.

It may be fake news, but they did try to get both sides of the story, so Bill Russell was not the only one who got his bells rung. Jewett City resident Ron Ward was also a target of this comedy troupe. Town First Selectwoman Ann Hatfield found the more fun than factual story entertaining.

"I was happy that I wasn't on the show," she laughed.

The Norwich Atheists are holding their monthly meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the Olde Tymes Restaurant in Norwich. They expect a higher turnout than usual because of Bill Russell's appearance on the comedy show.

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