Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Anyone who has read GetReligion for any time at all knows that our goal is to offer criticism — positive and negative — of mainstream news coverage of religion events and trends. The key word is “news.”
Reporters love to share former President Jimmy Carter’s stories and opinions. As the nation’s 86-year-old grandfather-in-chief tours the nation promoting his latest book, “White House Diary,” he’s generating a fair amount of ink. No surprise there.
At the Rally for Sanity I mentioned in my previous post, I happened to run into the People of Faith for Sanity breakfast at a local bar. It was fun chatting with the group, which was organized by Faith in Public Life.
I joined a couple of other friends to cover the Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive this past weekend. You can check out my 100 or so photos of the event here. The event was funny, had a serious message about being nicer to political enemiesopponents, but was also full of snark. After a couple of hours, we headed back home and watched the rest of the program on Comedy Central. We heard that Yusuf Islam had been part of the program. We didn’t believe it at first but it was true. He really did appear. He performed the song he sang he made famous under his former name Cat Stevens — “Peace Train” — against Ozzy Osbourne singing “Crazy Train.”
Over the years, I’ve enjoyed surveying media coverage of feasts and seasons of the liturgical calendar. And particularly when it comes to local news, the coverage can be quite good.
I hear, since my office is on Capitol Hill, that there is some kind of election going on today. The word on the street is that all kinds of terrified, emotional, angry people are going to march into polling places and destroy the era of hopeful, rational, optimism that has ruled our great land for the past 18 months or so. At least, that’s just what I read in the papers.
It’s no secret that the mainstream media have struggled to understand what’s happening politically in the country right now. You could say they’re more Stewart/Colbert than Tea Party. They’re just not terribly well suited to understand or explain how, exactly, the Republicans likely are about to retake the House of Representatives.
Another painful story from He Who Shall No Longer Be Named. Really, I feel like a broken record that is beating a dead horse.
