Getting to Know Your Neighbors on TV
The Westboro Baptist Church, a 40-member church comprised largely of one man's family is made world famous by the news media for its outrageous protests. Now there are probably only three reasons the media consciously decided to make such a tiny church such an enormous story over a period of many years: 1) that the news media actually believes Westboro is an accurate representative of what a significant number of Christians really think or 2) they know that 99.9% of Christians do not even remotely believe as they do but want to create a sweeping narrative in order to influence the public to think about Christians in a certain way. or 3) the news media knows that conflict creates history (and money) so it blew the story way out of proportion to create more viewership, advertisers and dollars.
Now, if the answer is either 2 or 3, the media has really done a number on the perceptions of the average American. I would go so far as to say they are largely guilty of perpetrating hate, bigotry and prejudice against a whole segment of society (i.e. theologically conservative Christians) which has only inflamed today's culture wars with half-truths and distortions. The answer obviously could not be that such an insignificant, un-influential church was really that big of a news story. It's not. Other news stories have faded into history but this one has not.