Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Were you enjoying the fact that the media had more or less dropped any coverage of the proposed Islamic Center near ground zero? Well, it’s back in the news with a couple of updates. There’s the rumor that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia might want to buy shuttered St. Vincent’s Medical Center and move the Park 51 mosque to a new Islamic cultural center he would build on the site (story in the New York Post).
As is our practice this time of year — everyone say “Duh” — your GetReligionistas like to roll out some of the “year’s top religion stories” lists and allow readers to join us in making comments.
When I think back on Christmas coverage in the past few years, stories about the plight of Christians in Iraq always stand out for me. Things have been unbelievably bleak for a while and yet somehow this year they took a turn for the worse. It was only Oct. 31 that Muslim terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda seized the Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad. Some 44 worshipers, two priests and seven security personnel died and 60 were wounded.
Before we dive into the actual 12 days of Christmas — don’t forget to send URLs of any mainstream coverage — let’s look at another really interesting story from a big week for religion news in the Washington Post. The headline was crisp and to the point, if somewhat dry for such an interesting piece:
What we have here is a classic “no comments” situation for GetReligion readers. I am about to praise a major Washington Post piece about religion on the other side of the world. It’s even about Islam.
It is very hard to write about the history of Catholicism in the United States without writing about the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland. Baltimore is, of course, the senior see in the United States and was established as a diocese on April 6, 1789.
In the wake of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a few mainstream journalists are still trying to get a handle on what happens next with issues of religious liberty in the U.S. military.
When we look at how the media writes about religion, we focus on news stories. But that’s only one of the ways the mainstream media discuss religion, of course. Even apart from the op-ed page — which we tend to stay away from unless there’s some breaking news there — there are photos, graphs, art reviews, advice columns and so on.
Let’s read this story together, shall me? The headline on A1 of the Washington Post was blunt, yet with very few specific details, in part because of the presence of that dishwater adjective “moderate.”
