Last week, an Iowa high school football coach was shot dead in the school’s weight room. Police charged a 24-year-old former player. The headline made Drudge but I quickly forgot the story and didn’t see much follow-up. Many people talk about the sports page as if it’s got the best writing in the whole newspaper. And they’re probably thinking of reporters like Josh Peter, an enterprise reporter with, of all outlets, Yahoo! Sports. He looked at the shooting and came up with a story about theodicy, forgiveness and the strength of tight-knit communities. Here’s how he began:
Focus on the president's family
Regular readers of this weblog know that that your GetReligionistas are fans of verbatim question-and-answer interviews, especially when they focus on religious (and political) leaders whose views have previously been crunched down into soundbites and factoids.
Sin and God's law at a press conference
I’ve confessed before my unfortunate love of a good scandal — and a good sex scandal all the more. A couple of days ago, I had gotten a tip about what would happen with regard to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s confession of adultery. And as I read accounts of his groundbreaking press conference (on Twitter, yes), I reacted with delight. I’d hoped for something very dramatic and I’d gotten it. A few days ago I read the following C.S. Lewis quote over at Gene Edward Veith’s blog:
Hearing the voices on the Metro
One of the doctrines of this weblog is that to understand how ordinary people live their lives, journalists need to “get religion.” You don’t have to force faith into these stories. In most cases, it’s already there.
One voice in Afghanistan
Struggling to keep his promises
The world-weary folks at the Washington Post Style section have made it official — the Sen. John Ensign affair is just no fun at all.
Woman abuses blog; anti-abortionists hardest hit
Kim Janssen of the Chicago Tribune did a generally solid job with a delicate topic on Friday, telling the story of a woman who blogged about having a baby with Trisomy 13, then losing the baby to death soon afterward. This pregnancy, although fictional, drew on what blogger Beccah Beushausen said was her previous loss of a baby under similar circumstances.
Stories have more than one side
A few years ago, Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll sent a memo to all section editors expressing his concern that the paper had covered a story about abortion in a remarkably one-sided manner:
Moving past the bumper stickers
Following the murder of prominent late-term abortion doctor George Tiller, gunned down in the foyer of his church, many mainstream media outlets have run articles about the controversial practice of late-term abortions and the doctors who perform them. This is a good thing. On a public policy issue as heated as late-term abortion, it’s good to provide readers with more information about the practice and who is involved.
