Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Usually the media only write about religious issues when those issues intersect with politics. So I was pleasantly surprised to read Susan Levine’s fantastic story about the role that faith plays in the lives of an area Christian couple. I was even more surprised that it ran on the front page of Sunday’s Washington Post. Here’s how it begins:
Sometimes a news story should mention the absence of an issue if only to calm the passions of the readers so more important issues can become the focus of the response to the story. Over in my old stomping grounds dubbed the Quad Cities, the region’s two local newspapers have jumped on a fascinating legal story that has a man with an extensive and violent criminal record agreeing to attend church as part of a probation sentence.
I’ve been admiring how much work Gary Stern, the Journal News religion reporter, has put into preparing for the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI. He put up an interactive Web site and publishes regular updates on his religion blog.
I realize, of course, that Eastern Orthodox Christians can be very picky and precise when it comes to matters of doctrine and liturgy. I mean, there’s a reason that we are called the Orthodox.
I hope readers who celebrated Easter yesterday had a beautiful day. I was most intrigued by coverage of the baptism of Magdi Allam, a prominent critic of radical Islam. Here’s how Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press began her story:
Every college basketball fan knows Bruce Pearl. The University of Tennessee men’s head coach is famous for turning around losing programs and his brash, outsized persona; at a woman’s basketball game last year, he painted his face and chest orange, wore a headband, and sat in the student section.
I think it’s tremendously interesting when the local newspaper gives a local story a completely different angle than the non-local news source. Case in point is the difference between the Watertown Daily Times coverage of their town’s attempt to crackdown on Old Order Amish home builders for violating housing codes (think no smoke detectors) and the Associated Press.
After that big Pew study came out, Catholic leaders wondered why their members are leaving the faith. Inside Catholic devoted a whole forum to the issue, while Catholic intellectuals such as Thomas Reese, S.J. commented about it.
You know you’re a journalist who cares about religion when you based your NCAA Tournament Bracket picks on the religion of the school. I tend to use some combination of my head and my heart, which usually leads to utter disaster and ruin. A more successful way I’ve observed is to pick teams based on a hypothetical match-up between the two schools mascots.
