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I’ve found it more and more difficult to praise religion reporting found in the Los Angeles Times — more on that soon — but Kevin Baxter gave me great occasion to lay down my arms with his profile of Yuri Foreman. At least, I thought he would.
It’s got to be hard being the Church of Scientology. Germany doesn’t want you; Wikipedia has banned your computers; protesters are trying to separate Beck from your fold; guys with samurai swords are challenging your guards; and all that Xenu talk just won’t go away.
If you’ve heard about the exclusive story that will be in tomorrow’s Haaretz’s Weekend Magazine, the news that for more than a decade a Hamas founder’s son served as a spy to Israel’s security agency, then you’ve almost certainly heard a component of the story that’s two obvious for the media to miss. In fact, this element of the story was its own story — and a good story at that — in 2008.
Good luck piecing this family tree together. That’s the first thing I thought when I saw this story in The New York Times about Yitta Schwartz, who died last month and left as many as 2,000 living descendants. The next thing I thought was that this story seemed like quite the one-upping of Rachel Krishevsky, who when she died in September was said to have 1,400 descendants.
The big news before I even walked out the door this morning was Tiger Woods’ public apology, in fact the first public appearance he had made since that cataclysmic collapse on Thanksgiving weekend. This was no press conference, and everything Woods said this morning felt painfully processed. It was also already common knowledge thanks to the reporting that took place during his two-and-a-half-month Houdini act.
Just last month I wrote about the “gospel of easy money,” and in that post were a few links to stories of pastors living unusually lavish lifestyles. If you read that post, and easily discerned my contempt for such behavior, you’d expect that similar stories immediately grab my attention. Stories like this one from WFAA News 8 in Dallas/Fort Worth:
So this is what big religion news in the Los Angeles Times has come to: 281 words buried on AA5. In a glorified brief with a photo, in eight paragraphs stuck in the second section of the paper, came the news that the Vatican was seeking a replacement for Cardinal Roger Mahony:
I’ve previously come across kung fu ministries. When I worked in the Inland Empire, I even attended a church event where former wrestlers and football players broke burning stacks of bricks instead of breaking bread. But did you hear the one about MMA — not watching it but actually doing it — was the latest trend to take over evangelical America?
Remember that reporter vice I discussed last week? If you need a refresher: Reporters and people and people are prone to temptation and maybe the greatest temptation of a reporter on deadline for a story they aren’t married to is to rely, often over-rely, on previously quoted experts.
