Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
I am a huge fan of Reuters religion coverage. I find their articles frequently informative, detailed, nuanced and covering stories that other outlets miss. I also enjoy their “Faithworld” blog. Last month, the blog highlighted the concern of a reader (and yes, I stole the headline from them):
For more than a week now, the mainstream press has been wrestling with the events in Egypt. It’s safe to say that this is the biggest news story, period, on planet Earth right now. I mean, other than Super Bowl XLV.
The drama in Egypt is rolling on and on, which means that journalists in local newsrooms across America are doing that thing that we do — we search for local angles on the stories.
I don’t know about you, but the following paragraph from an Atlantic Monthly blog post by White House correspondent Marc Ambinder left me amazed, confused and then ticked off:
Since your GetReligionistas went pretty ga-ga the other day while celebrating post No. 6,000, I think it is wise to try to stay calm while noting that today — Feb. 1 — marks the site’s seventh birthday. I mean, 10 people left comments to celebrate that previous landmark! Nevertheless, we plunged ahead and did a podcast to mark the event, too.
Did you hear about the man arrested with a car full of explosives (M80 fireworks) outside a Michigan Islamic center? Here’s the Detroit News lede for “Plot to blow up Dearborn mosque foiled by tip to police”:
It is very ironic that one of the only mainstream news-media reports I have read about the plight of Coptic believers in Egypt was in the Baltimore Sun and it centered on the insights of people in — wait for it — Baltimore.
CNN’s Reliable Sources from Sunday details some of the general problems or opportunities with media coverage in Egypt. Host Howard Kurtz and his guests discuss everything from Al Jazeera being shut down in Egypt to how reporters are dodging bullets with protesters being felled all around. The closure of foreign bureaus means that those hungry for news have been tuning into Al Jazeera English, which focuses on Middle East coverage. Tmatt already looked at one ghost in the coverage — the fate of Egypt’s Christian community.
It goes without saying that — as an Eastern Orthodox Christian — I have been trying to keep up with the news coverage of the rapidly unfolding events in Egypt.
