Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Not only do I avoid cable news, I think I was born without that gene where you obsess over white women who have gone missing or are in legal distress. I didn’t know Casey Anthony was a female until the end of her trial. My mom, on the other hand, followed the trial regularly. So did many others, to judge from ratings.
Anwar al-Awlaki was reportedly killed by a U.S. drone strike on Friday morning. He was as the New York Times describes him “the American-born cleric whose fiery sermons made him a larger-than-life figure in the shadowy world of jihad.”
On this week’s Crossroads, host Todd Wilken and I discussed the odd way in which the media covers President Obama’s religious rhetoric — which is to say that they typically avoid it.
No matter how high a reporter’s aspirations, there’s something about filing stories for the local police blotter that’s always enchanting. A few days ago, a local reporter for the Beaver County Times found himself a pretty big public interest story.
I’d like to look at a fairly recent Washington Post story about drone warfare. But before we look at it, let’s go back to June and look at a New York Times story on the same topic. Headlined “War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs,” the article is about the growth of drones. There were fewer than 50 a decade ago. Now there are 7,000. Some spy as well as strike. Manned aircraft are on the way out while the Air Force is training more remote pilots.
Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist who became the first African woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, died from cancer on Sunday. Here’s how the New York Times explained her significance in its obituary:
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press put out the results of their latest poll on public opinion of the media. And the results weren’t too good. But, on the other hand, they weren’t all bad. Here’s how Pew put it:
Earlier this year, I complained about the lack of coverage surrounding President Barack Obamaâs confession of Christian faith at a pre-Easter Easter breakfast he hosted at the White House. I wrote:
