Is the U.S. public moving towards a more conservative, or perhaps a less generally permissive, attitude towards legalized abortion?
Abortion: new data, new controversy
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What made them search a bishop?
I have two questions that I need to ask about the following CBC report, which I find stunning. One question now and one question later on in the post.
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Religious diversity in the newsroom
For weeks I have been meaning to take a look at the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (“Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low“). It didn’t deal specifically with religion reporting — or any other particular beat — but it showed that only 29 percent of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight and only 26 percent felt that news organizations tried to avoid political bias.
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Journalism's teshuvah on Yom Kippur
As a religion reporter, I always hated the holidays. Christmas, Ramadan, Yom Kippur — they all meant coming up with new stories for centuries-old traditions.
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Dead soldiers and religious freedom
Not that I want to encourage more coverage of Westboro Baptist Church, but this was worth bringing up.
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Shameless plugs for Godbeat pros
In an era in which the definition of journalism itself seems to be up for grabs, it’s a pleasure to praise Godbeat journalists recognized for superior writing by their own colleagues in the Religion Newswriters Association. Troll the list of the 2009 RNA awards, and you will see a few names you may know, either because they comment on the blog, or we often praise them for being examples of accurate reporting — Julia Duin (who won in multiple categories!), and Bob Smietana. Another award recipient was Sarah Pulliam, the younger sister of our own Daniel Pulliam.
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One way to cover Westboro Baptist
Hey reporters! You can run, but you cannot hide. Sooner or later, the tiny flock of activists known as the Westboro Baptist Church will show up in your zip code.
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Lutherans on the brink
Last month the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to roster partnered gay people as clergy. Not everyone in the denomination is happy about this doctrinal change in how the church now treats sex outside of the lifelong union of one man and one woman in matrimony. Among those is a group called Coalition for Reform. Terry noted some funny business in how the Associated Press handled the news of an upcoming meeting of this group and how the same news was handled better at the Washington Times.
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The anti-Gosselins
Sometimes religion stories are about what happens at the sweeping level of doctrine, traditional and denominational controversy. And sometimes journalists have the chance to inspire readers to ponder the question –could I do that?
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