Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
So what do you think of when you hear or read the word “evangelist”? Perhaps it would be better to frame the question this way: “Who do you think of when hear or read the word ‘evangelist’?”
A few weeks ago, a U.S. citizen and his brother-in-law were brutally murdered at their homes in Mexico in what looked like an organized-crime hit. Benjamin LeBaron had been vocally protesting the violence associated with Mexican drug gangs. His teenage brother had been kidnapped and a $1-million ransom had been demanded.
What would you ask President Obama if you got an interview with him this week? ABC News’ Terry Moran sat down with the President yesterday to discuss his health care reform effort. It’s not the longest interview, but most of the questions deal with the political debate surrounding health care. Then, at the end, it shifts to Afghanistan for a couple of questions. Finally, we get this:
Why is it that when it comes to celebrities, journalistic standards seem to fly straight out the window?
I already expressed my dismay of the journalistic use of the word “icon” to refer to people who are merely super-famous. Some people agreed with me and others thought that Jackson deserved to be described as such. Still others thought that only old fuddy-duddies such as myself care about preserving original definitions.
Believe it or not, your GetReligionistas are busy people who do have lives and other jobs. You can tell this from time to time when typos slip into print and we are slow to fix them. You can tell when huge stories break and it takes us a day or so to get our act together and wade through oceans of digital ink in search of a ghost or two. Is that a mixed metaphor, or what?
When covering foreign affairs (or even religion news), journalists often end up needing to mention the names of documents, institutions or groups — in the original language. Readers get used to seeing this.
My hometown alt-weekly — Denver’s Westword — had a lengthy and religion-infused profile of a local family that recently lost their beloved patriarch. Inventor Timber Dick died in a car crash a few weeks ago, leaving behind his wife Annette Tillemann-Dick and eleven children. The story emphasizes the quirkiness of the family — the kids have great names such as Charity Sunshine, Liberty Belle and Kimber Rainbow and all have their own area of accomplishment.
A couple of weeks ago, there was quite a bit of coverage regarding the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the most important ancient Christian manuscripts. Nobody flagged any stories as being particularly bad and it was during a pretty busy news cycle — so we didn’t look at coverage here at GetReligion. But a reader pointed me to another critique of the media coverage that is worth considering.
