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Analyzing the media coverage of the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis has been difficult simply because of the disgusting nature of the topic. But perhaps one of the most difficult articles to read was this April Newsweek story putting the abuse by priests in context of the larger problem:
Last year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to change its doctrine to allow gay clergy in committed sexual relationships. The Associated Press ran a story about one of the consequences of that vote:
Two weeks ago, the Sunday Boston Globe magazine ran an essay — not a news story, I admit — that I have been thinking about ever since. It was called “What I Believe” and it was written by Charles Pierce, a staff writer at the publication.
Did someone up there fail to get the memo that the National Enquirer isn’t exactly the most trusted outlet on earth?
When cultural and religious conservatives talk about the whole Journolist media mini-storm, here is the kind of quotation from The Daily Caller coverage that has them hot and bothered. This particular burst of rhetoric comes from the DC story about members of the Journolist — or JournoList — sharing their feelings about the conservative feminist that they already loved to hate, only moments after she entered national politics — Sarah Palin.
One is ordinary. Two is coincidence. But three is a growing trend — be it three teenagers with nose rings, three soccer moms supporting the same political candidate or three pastors tweeting from the pulpit.
There’s this New York Times feature called “Room for Debate.” The name alone, and its presence on the opinion pages, led me to believe that maybe there would be, I don’t know, a debate between the featured participants. The topic yesterday was “same-sex families,” the hook a new movie about a lesbian couple and their children. But there was no debate that I saw. Featured opinions ranged from those of Dan Savage to those of an Evergreen College professor. It was just a given that society should have no qualms about same-sex parenting. The end. The ruling class marches on.
It’s difficult to understand why only FOX News Radio and World Net Daily thought this was news. I gave it a few days to incubate. To no avail.
Whenever I come across a particularly puffy story, I might say it reads like a press release. But a reader sent in a story that really was just a slightly modified press release.
