Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
We’ve had an interesting conversation going on in a recent comment thread about how the media cover Islam and Christianity. Some people have speculated that political correctness or moral relativism harms some media coverage. I wonder if it might just be some problems with history. A GetReligion reader sent in this CNN article cheerily headlined “Muslims in Spain campaign to worship alongside Christians.”
Louisville Courier-Journal religion writer Peter Smith always does a nice job of covering national stories at the local level or showing the broader significance of local stories. For years he has covered the lawsuit against the Vatican (we’ve discussed NPR coverage here) by a once-local man who said he was sexually abused by a Louisville priest in 1928.
This weekend, President Obama gave a First Amendment defense of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. The next day he made a point of noting that he wasn’t addressing the “wisdom” of building a mosque at the site. One of those two statements probably angered most people but I appreciate his comments and that distinction — noting that there are two discussions going on right now.
Anyone who is part of the GetReligion community likely has a few pet peeves about media coverage. We joke about the need for a GetScience, GetMath and GetStatistics to complement GetReligion.
American obituary writers have nothing on the Brits, where you may be excused for thinking you’re reading a roast rather than a tribute. I’m glad we have a more respectful tradition, but sometimes the obit can come off a bit dry. But this obituary in the Los Angeles Times was a captivating read. It tells some highlights of the story of Robert Aitken‘s life. One of the first Americans to be “fully sanctioned” as a master of Zen Buddhism, Robert Baker Aitken Roshi died last week at the age of 93. Elaine Woo began with his significance to the community:
It’s always interesting to see what stories reporters jump on and which are ignored. This has actually been a good year for coverage of changes in religious affiliation, thanks to some major studies on the matter. Here’s a CNN piece headlined “Study: Young Americans less religious than their parents,” for instance.
It’s a tough category, to be sure, but Lona O’Connor wins the prize for the worst story I’ve ever seen about female, non-Roman Catholic priests. It ran in the Palm Beach Post and it’s just absolutely embarrassing from top to bottom.
Readers here at GetReligion aren’t surprised to hear about the troubles that some religious groups have when attempting to build new or expanded worship sites. In recent years, we’ve seen stories about attempts to thwart construction or religious practice for Hindus, Orthodox Jews, Pagans, Mormons, Muslims and even charismatic Anglicans.
We could probably spend weeks looking at the media coverage of the mosque proposed to be built near Ground Zero. One of the things I find so interesting about this story is how so much of the reporting on the mosque and its backers is being done by non-traditional media. And many of the mainstream reports seem less interested in that aspect of the story than looking at the opposition to the mosque. It creates a weird media climate where the best news and analysis comes from blogs and pundits and, well, the worst treatment and analysis comes from blogs and pundits.
