Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
As regular readers know, I’ve been in a bit miffed lately by the Los Angeles Times‘ recent coverage, or lack thereof, when it comes to the presence of the giant, complex and newsworthy Catholic flock that is sitting in its own backyard.
There are two sad elements to this story from the Los Angeles Times, titled “Gaveling for God: Christian lawyers seek judgeships in move that could blur church-state line.”
I’m sorry. I try not to pick on any reporters, especially one who is a former Bruin and is fighting the good fight on one of the more besieged religion beats in the country. But I have to ring this bell again.
First the Los Angeles Times nonchalantly reported the news that Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the largest Catholic community in the nation, would not be asked by the pope to stay on, as is common, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. In a glorified news brief, no less.
The Tennessean published a pretty good article from Bob Smietana over the weekend that dealt with a Muslim groups defeated mosque-permit application. The article discusses familiar themes of NIMBYism and is laced with Islamophobic sentiments from the most vocal opponents of the project:
The passing of Moishe Rosen wasn’t earth-shattering, but this was certainly news worthy of coverage on more obit pages than that of The Washington Post.
Pretty much the moment Elena Kagan was nominated by President Obama to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, the questions started swirling. Few online seemed all that concerned with her politics or her understanding of constitutional law. “Elena Kagan husband” became a major Google trend, and it seemed a lot of people just wanted to know why Kagan, at the age of 50, was still single.
“Nazi scandal engulfs Human Rights Watch.” Not a headline you would expect to ever see. But there it was in The Sunday Times of London. And all I could think was: Not again.
