Journalism

Belle and Sebastian ... and God

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and they raved about the new Belle and Sebastian album “Write About Love.” One of their new songs came on over the transom XM Radio and our guests stopped the conversation to listen and tell us about how fantastic it is. I’ve just listened to the full album — courtesy of NPRMusic.org — and it is really good.


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Glenn Beck's gospel

Glenn Beck announced today that he won’t appear on his radio show for two days next week because of medical problems in his hands and feet. He said on his radio show that doctors tell him that there may be “small fiber” issues involved, and he will undergo two days of testing.


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A tale of two blasphemies

So we lived through the media circus related to the threat to burn copies of the Koran. I keep thinking back on that with a shudder. A reporter I know was wondering why a few religious groups hadn’t taken to the airwaves to denounce the threat. Because, of course, what the world needed was more people weighing in against the Koran burning. But that was the media environment a few weeks ago — religious and/or political groups sensing an opportunity for favorable coverage by riding the coattails of a media stunt. And reporters having a publication/broadcast-friendly story ripe for the picking.


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Why journalists love Westboro Baptist

Actually, the headline on the top of this post should say, “Why so many mainstream journalists are biting their lips and showing reluctant support for the fundamentalists — self proclaimed, fitting Associated Press style — from Westboro Baptist Church.” But that wouldn’t fit very well in our format.


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Womenpriest trend pieces past expiration date?

Oh dear. Just as the rumors about Newsweek are becoming more positive, the news product offered by Time is suffering. Last week we looked at a very poor piece of journalism about female priests in non-Roman Catholic churches. And we looked at the odd defense offered by the reporter.


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Street preaching is so uncouth

I’ve been meaning to cover the story of the four Christian evangelists who were arrested at the Dearborn Arab International Festival in June. It is fascinating to me how much coverage the media devoted to the non-burn of the Koran in Florida compared to the actual “going ghost” of Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris or the actual arrest of four street evangelists in Dearborn. I would just love for someone who was involved in the coverage of the Koran burn threat to explain why they wrote eleventy billion stories on the Florida pastor and none on these other situations.


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