Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Any story of moral failing has religious overtones, and sex scandals are no exception. They usually involve broken religious vows and provoke all sorts of questions about the religious views of the participants.
The media run so many of those tear-jerking profiles of hardships Olympic athletes overcome that they lose their effect after a few days. But there’s at least one story that resonates deeply. Lopez Lomong, a Sudanese “Lost Boy” and a member of the anti-genocide group Team Darfur, certainly suffered more than most in his 23 years.
An excellent example of journalism properly covering the issue of religion in an athlete’s life is this Runner’s World profile of Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall. I know many out there are skeptical when super rich athletes and coaches say something about how they thank the Lord for this or that or give God the honor, but bear with me because this story is about none of those things.
At all costs avoid the Associated Press’s coverage of the lawsuit against Victoria Osteen. The article the AP has distributed is full of examples of poor journalistic practices that damage the reputation of the profession.
OK, I have some questions after reading the mainstream news coverage of the funeral rites for Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn did not live the kind of life that fits easily into a 700-word wire service story.
As you would expect, I am still following the coverage of the Radovan Karadzic case, still looking to see if anyone is going to provide on-the-record information to back up all of those charges that the world’s most infamous war criminal had, at some point, been hiding in Orthodox churches or monasteries.
A couple of years ago, Eric Gorski — then at the Denver Post — ran a a three-part series on a local preacher of the Prosperity Gospel. What I loved about the piece, which exposed the pastor’s financial success, was that it also explored prosperity teaching in detail.
Most of this week, I am swamped with classroom work for the Oxford Centre for Religion & Public Life, which is holding a seminar in Washington, D.C.. So I have had very little time for reading newspapers and blogging.
