Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
I’m not the toolish type of gym rat. “I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period.” I’ve also never used them accidentally — and you wouldn’t suspect otherwise. But between playing basketball a few times a week and lifting weights two or three days a week, I’m in the gym pretty regularly.
I’m sorry to bring this up, but it’s time – once again – to wrestle with the complicated reality that is GOP superstar (sort of) Willard Mitt Romney and the challenges he presents to mainstream reporters who cover his, at this time, unofficial candidacy for the White House in ’12.
We spend a lot of time here emphasizing the importance of considering religion when journalists cover a beat (ghost anyone?). But there are reporters out there who dig for and pounce on those religion angles, either in national news stories, denominational news or maybe in an entrepreneurial story.
When you think of someone doing right by the Church of Cyprus, you probably don’t think of Boy George. And yet there he was, returning an icon he’d bought (without realizing its origin) in 1985, years after the Turkish invasion. The BBC writes:
There really isn’t any question about the facts that belonged at the top of the obituaries for Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 2009 and, now, those noting the passing of her charismatic husband R. Sargent Shriver.
Some media outlets are catching on to the fact that the new Miss America was homeschooled for most of her life, so I joked earlier that perhaps the Miss America pageant would become the next National Spelling Bee competition for homeschoolers. Between bikinis and ball gowns, though, pageants are probably a far cry from spelling bees (remember this fantastic CNN interview?).
It’s NFL playoffs time again and, of course, the hated Pittsburgh Steelers are once again poised to knock the Baltimore Ravens out of the playoffs. If this horrific reality comes to pass (again), there is a very good chance that the deed will be done by the Steelers’ mane man, superstar safety Troy Polamalu. Personally, I think Polamalu is the best player in professional football and, yes, that includes the quarterback up in New England.
In the latest Crossroads podcast I talk about how the media invented a papal war on celebrity names out of whole cloth. That led into a broader discussion of how the media lost a bit of credibility this week with some poor decisions about how to cover the tragedy in Arizona.
Every now and then, elite organizations such as the New York Times run strange, colorful stories about those strange people who live out there in flyover country, by which I mean the Bible Belt and other locations between the Hollywood sign and the Hudson River.
