Journalism

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Bad Jesus-Pontius Pilate analogies

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Sojourners magazine founder Jim Wallis predicted on National Public Radio’s Interfaith Voices this week that a button circulating on the Internet stating that Jesus Christ was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor would be all over the place in a few days. Wallis was making the point that the comment by Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin during her acceptance speech about Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama’s community organizing experience was fairly offensive to community organizers and may backfire in faith-based communities where community organizers are often associated with churches. He suggested he might want to apologize.


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Not always reliable sources

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I have been reflecting on the Charles Gibson’s performance during his ABCinterview of Gov. Sarah Palin and I actually feel bad for him. Because Palin has not been as available to the press as they would have liked, he had the burden of representing the entire mainstream media establishment. And with the mainstream media admitting they are “angry” and passionate these last few weeks, that put Gibson in a very difficult position. I mean, he has to work with and socialize with these people for the rest of his life. That is an incredible amount of peer pressure and it had to have been an unbelievably difficult situation for him. I don’t think it excuses getting basic facts wrong but it’s just worth considering all the pressures he was under.


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Don't tell me words don't matter (updated)

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Okay, we’re getting quite a bit of reader reaction to Charlie Gibson’s interview of Gov. Sarah Palin airing on ABC. Apparently Gibson messed up big time when he tried to explore Palin’s religious views. Here’s a portion of the transcript:


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Morality-free death coverage

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The News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington, had an intriguing article last week on the Catholic Church’s official opposition and efforts to raise funds to fight against the state of Washington’s “Death with Dignity” campaign, as it is dubbed by supporters. The article focuses fairly exclusively on the Catholic Church’s opposition to the campaign (which will be on the state’s November ballot). There is a brief description of the proposal with a mention that it is modeled after an Oregon law.


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Newsweek on abortion, hellfire and rumors

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One of the problems with the mainstream media’s rush to the gutter in the early days following her being named for the VP slot is that their entire reputation has been shot. So many people disliked what they saw and read in the first week that they’ve lost a level of trust with the media. It’s important, though, to understand that the desire for information about Palin is legitimate and good and it’s the point of having a press.


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