Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
One of our goals here at GetReligion is to find stories in mainstream journalism that are “haunted” by religion ghosts, which we define as a clear religious element or theme that the reporters and editors either didn’t notice or simply ignored.
A good newspaper editorial page will be staffed by reporters with a drive toward breaking news. Most, it seems, just write bland, predictable opinion pieces in response to the news of the day. So I’m not opposed to seeing a columnist break some news on her beat. I think it can promote some healthy competition with the regular newswriters.
As the click ticks down to papalmania, we have reached the point where it is impossible to follow all of the coverage, let alone offer some commentary on it. Perhaps, in the comments pages, we could start a list of the best blogs to watch during the next few days. Please pitch in.
I do not know if there are any religion writers left at the Los Angeles Times, but I hope that there is someone there on the beat. Someone needs to write a news feature about the death of one of the most interesting Christian educators of the late 20th century.
I can’t remember when, exactly, the mainstream media decided that it would stop with the unilateral caricature of evangelicals as the Christian Right, but I’m not sure the new caricature is much improved.
A recurring problem with stories about lawsuits is that only one side of the story is presented. Due to understandable hesitations, the party that is being sued is unlikely to comment on the lawsuit until they are able to formally respond to the lawsuit. You generally don’t win lawsuits on the news pages.
Several readers have written in to let us know about a new feature over at Poynter.org entitled “New Frames Needed for Religion Reporting,” written by Bill Kirtz of Northeastern University. This is a short summary of a recent forum on the subject at Northeastern and it offers some timely advice from veterans on the beat and some very good links to information.
How often do you read that the Southern Baptist Convention is to the left of a theological debate? For many, that fact alone is the story’s lead. Such is the situation when a reporter must cover a theological/academic spat at a religiously fundamental institutions.
In recent weeks, I’ve tried to point out some of the better and worse coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit to the United States.
