“Balkan, Balkan,” they said in France of a pimp slapping a whore or three kids beating up a fourth — anything barbarous or brutal.
Smyert Shpionam -- Death to Spies
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Jay Leno Infuriates Sikhs. Why?
If I watch late-night television, I watch Craig Ferguson. Not Jay Leno. Apparently Jay Leno angered some people in the Sikh community the other night. Here’s how Politico explains it:
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Who's calling who an Anglican "sect"?
If you’ve been reading GetReligion for very long, you probably know that “cult” is the kind of word that is almost impossible to use in public media without causing riots. Are we talking about a dangerous sociological cult? A doctrinal cult? If so, which religious group’s doctrines are providing the frame of reference in this case?
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Egypt's moderate and puritanical Muslims
In recent days, some news has sputtered out of Nigeria about the horrific ongoing attacks perpetrated by Boko Haram. Many journalists have been pooh-poohing claims by the U.S. and Nigerian governments that Boko Haram is tied to al Qaeda. See, for example, this Reuters report headlined “Analysis: Nigeria’s Boko Haram ups game but no Al Qaeda.” Now that we’re learning more about the widespread coordinated attacks on Christians and other targets (the death toll is at least 162 in this Associated Press report), I sure hope to see more in-depth coverage of what’s happening there.
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Seeing the ghost in Lenin's shrine
Confession No. 1: There are times when I am reading a story in a major newspaper and, after two or three paragraphs, I am seized with this premonition that the story is going to be “haunted,” that there is a religious “ghost” linked to this topic and that journalists are not going to see it.
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Does the Holocaust belong to Jews?
“The canonization of the SS” is the front page headline for the 11 January issue of the Tageszeitung, the left-liberal Berlin daily.
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Gay rights vs. church rites
I’d like to call your attention to some great religion reporting in the British press this week concerning Dr. Jeffrey John, the Dean of St. Albans Cathedral. Attention to detail and context, lightness of touch, lucid prose and a high degree of intellectual and moral sophistication mark these stories.
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Sex and circulation
There is nothing like a good sex scandal to boost circulation. A quick glance at the covers of the magazines offered for sale at your grocery store will confirm the maxim that sex sells. The escapades of film stars, royalty, and sports heroes have long been a staple of this genre, (politicians too, but they do not generate the same intensity of interest).
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Gay marriage a threat to journalism's future
I wrote yesterday about Pope Benedict XVIâs speech to the diplomatic corps, in which he called for a focus on religious liberty. That didnât get much news coverage, but guess what is! Thatâs right, remarks that Pope Benedict XVI didnât even make. And such is the state of affairs in reporting on the pontiff.
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