Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
From time to time, your GetReligionistas have joined with the general public in moaning about the degree to which mainstream journalists are obsessed with matters of political “process” and that whole “inside baseball” school of news coverage in which reporters pounce on tiny changes in process or personnel as alleged evidence of earthquakes in national or world affairs.
I like to collect examples of the media attributing to their favorite literary or public figures quotes that actually come from somewhere else.
So the Politico recently published another lengthy story on Mitt Romney. Now that’s hardly an atypical event for Politico, but this one was a little different.
When you’re talking about Doc Watson, the place to start is here: He was a superstar in old-time folk music, which is the rare art form in which the word “tradition” is not a curse.
Some news organizations are working in their editorials and opinion pieces (if not elsewhere) — to downplay, denigrate or outright dismiss the religious liberty concerns some Americans have expressed recently. And yet, particularly when it comes to a new federal mandate requiring some religious organizations to violate their doctrines or face strict fines and penalties, people keep expressing these concerns.
Her little bird — a poor slight thing the pressure of a finger would have crushed — was stirring nimbly in its cage; and the strong heart of its child-mistress was mute and motionless for ever.
So, let’s let the whole progressive nuns vs. the Vatican thread spin on a bit, since the regional stories continue to pop up in the mainstream press.
Before we get going with what I’m sure will be a heavy duty week in GetReligion post (and yes, I have a couple of posts I’m writing right now on coverage of religious freedom issues) I had to share something from NPR’s Weekend Edition on Saturday.
At the heart of the whole U.S. nuns vs. the Vatican media storm is the April 18th “doctrinal assessment” in which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expressed its concerns about the theological orientation expressed by the leadership of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The report mentions a host of concerns about a decade or two of LCWR educational events, speeches, national conferences, etc.
