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Yesterday we discussed the media coverage of Osama bin Laden’s “Muslim burial.” At first the media ran with the story that he’d been buried at sea according to Muslim law and also to avoid the grave becoming a shrine. Then some reporters noted that some Muslim clerics disagreed that the burial had been done according to Islamic practice.
Down South, though, about 350 people are dead and thousands more hurt and homeless after a swath of tornadoes cut a deadly path across seven Southern states — hitting Alabama hardest — last Wednesday night. It’s the nation’s deadliest twister outbreak since the Great Depression and America’s worst natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina, according to the news reports I’ve read.
All kinds of people have, during the past decade or two, voiced all kinds of complaints about the state of journalism as practiced in our mainstream media. Many of these complaints are even accurate.
Shortly after I wrote the previous post about the Obama administration’s desire to adhere to sharia when it comes to the handling of Osama bin Laden’s body, we learned that the burial at sea had already happened. And what that means is we’re getting some interesting stories about the role religion played in his burial.
We’ve had quite the active few days in religious news, eh? And we’ll have many things to look at in media coverage from the days to come. In President Barack Obama’s address to the nation about the killing of Osama bin Laden, he discussed bin Laden’s religion and the effect of his actions on other Muslims. There’s a lot to discuss there but not much to note with media coverage yet. Here’s the portion of the speech in question:
If you have recovered from the royal wedding, the NFL draft, or whatever else captured your attention over the weekend, you can now direct your attention to an important ceremony that took place in Rome today. A few days ago, we talked about whether the royal wedding would overshadow Pope John Paul II’s beatification, but I was pleased to see many outlets devoting reporters and space to the ceremony. Media Bistro, for instance, reports that cable shows were up and running this morning on the story.
If you know anything about the history of high-society journalism inside the Beltway, then you understand that the Washington Post had to publish some kind of Sally Quinn piece about that wedding over on the other side of the Atlantic. I do not know if the resulting piece is journalism or not, but it does offer some insights and information in her first-person, my-feelings-are-the-story style that has helped define much of the foggy content in the “On Faith” project.
Religion News Service has an interesting trend piece, via The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., on growing acceptance of autistic children in church.
Covering religion in Washington DC takes an extra measure of precision, and Washington Post reporter Michelle Boorstein regularly takes that level of care when covering the intersection of religion and politics. With all the scuffles over the economy, foreign policy and other current debates of the day (birth certificate anyone?), religion can easily get lost, but Boorstein keeps finding interesting angles that illuminate current political affairs.
