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Last week, The Denver Post‘s Eric Gorski gave us the marching orders from Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. Then the Rev. Ted Haggard madness broke open and Dobson’s words to evangelicals were lost in an avalanche of news coverage.
Election day is finally here, which means that it’s OK for the Rev. Ted Haggard story to slip back deep inside the newspaper (unless it’s a Colorado newspaper).
It’s time for the little big show here in Washington, since the midterm elections are never quite as big a show as the big big show, which is a presidential election day. However, the presidential election does officially start at sunrise tomorrow, to hang in there.
The Episcopal Church invested a new leader this weekend. Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected the first female presiding bishop in June, and media reports then focused on the milestone. Jefferts Schori’s election also provoked a possible schism in the church because of her vote to confirm the election of a gay bishop, among other things.
The Rev. Ted Haggard story is now unfolding in a manner that is both dramatic and, for journalists, frustrating.
As several GetReligion readers have noted on the comment boards, the Rev. Ted Haggard has been fired.
Over the past few days, I have been watching the coverage of the Rev. Ted Haggard fiasco carefully to see how many journalists understand one of the most important facts in this story.
After a wild Friday on the Colorado Springs front, I think I can safely say that there is more news and fallout to come.
As a print journalist, I often wince when important news stories are driven by the radio and television. Accusations fly quickly and responses are hastily arranged. Even in the age of the Internet, stories driven by print reporters develop more slowly. Facts tend to be treated with greater care when they are handled by individuals independent of the situation than by accusers and the accused.
