A "Holy War" in Lake Worth? Really now CBS12!

[Below is a blog post from December 18, 2014, in the leadup to Christmas in Lake Worth. To say it was one of the low points for local TV journalism would be an understatement.]

"Free speech gone wild!" said Liz Quirantes at CBS12/WPEC on Monday. Liz Quirantes is the anchor at CBS12 who did the leadup to Israel Balderas' immensely 'important' story [Link has been deleted] on "free speech" here in Lake Worth.

I didn't think it was possible for Mr. Balderas to top the poor taste of his fellow reporter at CBS12, Kathleen Walter, but he did. On the very night preceding the Lake Worth Holiday Parade CBS12 and Kathleen Walter reported on a non-story concerning a Deerfield Beach blogger and his 'Satanist' invocation at a city commission meeting that may not happen for months, if at all. You can read about that here. This image below was from the report—nice juxtaposition of a Christmas tree along with "Prayer to Satan?"

Here is a screen grab of Israel Balderas and his latest story:

A "Holy War" in Lake Worth, Mr. Balderas? Maybe just a tiny bit of exaggeration and inflammatory? When you Wiki "Holy War" this is one of the items that turn up. In the era of ISIS and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is it appropriate, Mr. Balderas, to do a story about a Satanist in Deerfield Beach and a Boca Raton pastor and refer to it as a "Holy War" in Lake Worth? Are we trying to stoke the flames of hysteria, Mr. Balderas? 

Really now, are the ratings at CBS12 that bad? 

NBC5/WPTV has a much superior news program than WPEC. I couldn't imagine a reporter at NBC5 referring to a "Holy War" in Lake Worth. It wouldn't be responsible or ethical. The folks at CBS12 have no such reservations.