Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Even though I’m not a big fan of either the New York Yankees or the Philadelphia Phillies, I’ve watched and enjoyed this year’s World Series. I didn’t expect there to be much of a religion angle in the coverage of either team, but really enjoyed Andy Martino’s profile of Phillie pitcher Brad Lidge (who, it must be said, didn’t have a great Game 4 the other night) in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
USA Today put the following headline on Associated Press religion reporter Eric Gorski’s story about James Dobson stepping down from Focus on the Family’s main radio broadcast:
Although it wasn’t covered by a wide variety of media outlets, this local TV news story (embedded here) sure made a splash yesterday. It’s about how the director of the (Texas A&M-area) Bryan Planned Parenthood resigned her post last month after watching an abortion being performed on an ultrasound.
Did you hear about the attempted honor killing a couple of weeks ago in Arizona? I haven’t seen many stories about it. Tmatt looked at the ghosts in some of the coverage a week or so ago but It’s clearly not major news, although national media outlets have begun running their traditional one (or fewer!) stories on the matter. For the life of me, I can’t understand why stories about honor killings or attempted honor killings aren’t major news. This is a concept so very foreign and horrifying to most readers of American media and yet these stories are routinely underplayed. Now maybe the mainstream media doesn’t need advice on how to get more readers/viewers/listeners, but I think that when a father runs down his daughter with two tons of steel over some perceived slight to his honor, that’s newsworthy.
One of my close friends — and fellow St. Louis Cardinals fans — is a wonderful Lutheran pastor who suffers from clinical depression. Earlier this year, he published a book titled “I Trust When Dark My Road.” The book (which you can download for free here) allows the reader to look deep into the heart, mind and soul of someone suffering mental illness. Many Americans, myself included, have depression or other related problems. And even for me it’s somewhat difficult to think that it afflicts pastors — as if wearing a stole somehow protects you from the problem.
A couple of months ago, Elizabeth looked at a big Newsweek piece on polyamory and criticized it for its lack of depth, neglect of religious angles, and its unrealistic portrayal of poly communities. Well, compared to this CNN story with an attention-grabbing headline of “Mate debate: Is monogamy realistic?,” that Newsweek article was a masterpiece. Apparently the premise of this article is that in oldentimes, people were monogamous but in these complicated modern times, it’s a completely unrealistic virtue and should be dropped post haste.
So Time magazine has an interesting story about social scientists looking at a connection between clean livin’ and Windex. Apparently studies suggest that people behave better when they’re surrounded by the Refreshingly Clean Scent of Streak-free Windex. I don’t doubt this as my own behavior ranges from disorderly mayhem to prim and proper based on the state of my house. (Things aren’t so great right now, thanks for asking.)
Reporting from London, the Los Angeles Times‘ Henry Chu takes a look at what the Vatican’s new Anglican provision means for both church bodies. The punchy story is written well and includes some helpful information. It begins by looking at one Church of England parish that is likely to make the move before putting that congregation’s story in context:
This week the New York Times ran a fascinating profile of a Texas Associated Press journalist whose beat has led him to witness more executions than anyone else on record. As in, more than 300. I really enjoyed the article although I enjoyed it less after I realized it was a bit of a rewrite of a CNN piece from July.
