Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Often you’ll see political blogs regurgitating one another so the same storylines get pushed through the cycle. Some blogs do very good aggregation while others obviously use bait to get more clicks. Few blogs specialize in breaking new ground.
A friend sent me the bizarre news about the naked man shot to death while he was chewing off a homelessman’s face and said “Sound like demons?” linking to Mark 5. Yeah, so I’m guessing your average reporter knows next to nothing about demons, but I was curious to see how it would play out in the media.
There was a gay pride march the other day in Utah and The Salt Lake City Tribune, in it’s basic report about the event, certainly didn’t shy away from publishing a provocative lede:
I don’t naturally click on too many stories about shootings. We live in an urban environment, and the more you read, the more paranoid you can get. That said, stories about a shooting can turn up stories of bravery and kindness, stories that show sparks of selflessness in the middle of a messy situation.
Although I lived in the mountains of Tennessee for six years, I am not an expert on the small — but well documented — bands of Christians who choose to handle snakes as part of their worship services. Yes, there was this mainstream Greek newspaper that decided that I was an expert on this subject (one of the most bizarre episodes in my career), but that was the kind of mistake that happens when one writes a singe column that somehow shows up high in a Google search.
Prepare to be moved to tears, because we have a lovely story to share. A friend sent me this amazing Associated Press story about a woman coming to terms with a stunning photo from her childhood. I would post the photo here, but AP owns the photo so you can find it here.
In one of my favorite scenes in the original 2001 “Shrek” movie, the title character explains to Donkey that “there’s a lot more to ogres than people think.”
When you’re talking about Doc Watson, the place to start is here: He was a superstar in old-time folk music, which is the rare art form in which the word “tradition” is not a curse.
During election season, we will continue to see stories that make grand, sweeping statements about voter groups. As we saw with The Economist a few weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times makes some assumptions about evangelicals where an editor could have easily asked “where do you see evidence for your assertion?”
