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On Friday morning, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for womenâs rights to full participation in peace-building work.”
At this point, I am getting very tired of the word “sectarian” in reports from the fiery streets of Cairo.
Writing about the miraculous — apart from baseball — is a tricky task. The key to a good miracle story is its tone. If a writer is too deferential to his subject he becomes an apologist. Too harsh and he becomes an antagonist. Adopting the voice of the village atheist or a credulous devotee fails the test of sound journalism.
Not only do I avoid cable news, I think I was born without that gene where you obsess over white women who have gone missing or are in legal distress. I didn’t know Casey Anthony was a female until the end of her trial. My mom, on the other hand, followed the trial regularly. So did many others, to judge from ratings.
The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world.
Anwar al-Awlaki was reportedly killed by a U.S. drone strike on Friday morning. He was as the New York Times describes him “the American-born cleric whose fiery sermons made him a larger-than-life figure in the shadowy world of jihad.”
Claims of hostile coverage of the Catholic Church by the New York Times will come as no surprise to GetReligion readers. Yet an unfavorable critique of the church is not always a sign of animus. When the press exposes cant, corruption and incompetence it is doing its job — no matter the field of inquiry. And then there is bad reporting.
We have had some fascinating comments about my recent posts (here and here) noting the lack of mainstream media coverage of the Iranian proceedings against Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani — who was accused of apostasy for converting to Christianity, even though he had never practiced Islam after coming of age.
I’m still using Google News to search for mainstream news media reports on the fate of the Iranian pastor who faces the death penalty for being a Muslim apostate, even though he has never practice Islam.
