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We’ve debated before whether Westboro Baptist Church is worthy of newsprint. Probably not. But the group likely won’t go away if we simply ignore it, which seems to be what The Washington Post had in mind when leaving any mention of Westboro out of this story about their protest at the school the Obama girls attend.
Typically, we refer to a person studying to be a rabbi, like the newly crowned WBA junior middleweight champ Yuri Foreman, as a rabbinical student, not a rabbi-to-be. The Los Angeles Times got it right; USA Today got it wrong. But the LAT failed to deliver even a light body blow to the broader tale of Talmud and the tape. The first word of sports reporter Kevin Baxter’s article about Foreman is “rabbinical” — and not another mention of anything related to Judaism.
I always appreciate when I have the opportunity to point out a reporter getting religion. The New York Times recently gave us one such example. But first, a little background and a bit of self reference.
We’re still learning a lot about Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, though I doubt his Muslim beliefs were, as reported by NPR’s Daniel Zwerdling this morning, “orthodox.” I know more than a few traditionally observant Muslims who would dispute that.
Coverage of the tragedy at Fort Hood, which left at least 13 dead, has continued its evolution. I mentioned Friday that it began with shock and ended up with Muslims condemning the alleged actions of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The focus now has turned to fallout for the thousands of other Muslim members of the active-duty military.
Long before Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on Fort Hood, killing at least 13, there was a well-established formula for covering this story.
Jack Teitel has attracted a lot of media attention since the Sabbath. An American Jew who made aliyah in 2000, Teitel was arrested by Israeli police and charged with several acts of terror, including the murder of two Palestinians in 1997, the bombing of a leftist Israeli professor’s house and the Purim bombing of a teenage boy. Police said Teitel also took credit for killing two gay Jews in Tel Aviv in August — though he hadn’t actually been involved.
I don’t think I’ve written about paganism since I joined GetReligion. Hopefully this post will go over better.
Steven Waldman, the founding editor of Beliefnet, resigned yesterday to join the Federal Communications Commission as the Chairman Julius Genachowski’s special adviser and head a commission on the state of the media in challenging economic times. Writing on his Beliefnet blog:
