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Of all the Smithsonians, my favorites are the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Health and Medicine (or as I call it, the Museum of Medical Oddities). The NPG was closed for something like five years while undergoing a costly renovation. But it reopened a few years back and is back in the news with an exhibit (“Hide/Seek”) exploring sexual identity in art.
Religion writer and reporter Mark Oppenheimer mentioned GetReligion on his worthwhile blog. He highlighted our critiques of two recent pieces — the Arizona gay Mormon suicide story and the Amish forgiveness story.
It’s no secret that reporters struggle with statistics. But this story combines that problem with weak reporting on Mormonism and gay issues. And it is a doozy. This might be the most illogical and bizarre story I’ve read in some time. I passed it along to a few other reporters and they couldn’t believe it had been published. So with that, I present MyFoxPhoenix.com’s (KSAZ FOX 10 KUTP My45) “Suicide Rate Disturbingly High Among Arizona Mormons.”
Last year when late-term abortion provider George Tiller was killed inside his church, the media devoted many stories to late-term abortions. One of the things that I noted at the time was that I erroneously believed there were only three men in the country willing to abort late-term and full-term fetuses: Tiller, LeRoy Carhart and Warren Hern. This was based on the claims of the men themselves, which were repeated by many in the media.
Last month Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler reviewed The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America. While he gave the book a favorable review, he used the review as an opportunity to discuss how Christianity and Hinduism differ and why that’s important. Peter Smith at the Louisville Courier-Journal highlighted Mohler’s review and it created a bit of a firestorm. The Associated Press even ran a story, which I dinged for failing to quote any Hindus on the matter, much less Hindus who agree with Mohler that yoga is a Hindu practice.
Twitter has its faults but it’s an amazing way to follow major world events in real time. Take the situation in the Koreas. North Korea shelled South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island a few days ago, in a deadly artillery attack. The United States and South Korea took up position in the Yellow Sea today for joint military exercises. Journalists have been told they should leave the island. North Korea has threatened another “merciless” attack.
It’s been quite a few years since I read William McGowan’s Coloring the News: How Political Correctness Has Corrupted American Journalism. It was a surprisingly popular book considering the book does nothing more than discuss some of the basics of modern media bias.
Thanksgiving is all about family traditions. And what could be more traditional than a GetReligion look at a Roman Catholic Womenpriests story? So everyone pull out the blankets and cuddle by the fire as we look through the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s recent entry for the Best Worst Roman Catholic Female Priest story. If you look at the headline — “Newnan woman challenges Catholic church: Diane Dougherty pushes to allow women to be deacons” — you’ll see that there’s no way this is the best worst entry.
Here at GetReligion, we respond to the news of the day. Sometimes that means we don’t get a chance to reflect on broader themes. We spent a lot of time discussing how the mainstream media handled the Vatican sex abuse crisis earlier this year. The Ethics and Public Policy Center hosted a gathering of journalists from mainstream secular outlets to reflect on what went right and what went wrong with that coverage.
