Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
One of the hardest concepts to explain to people who have never worked in a newsroom is why some events in a city are “news stories” in the eyes of most journalists and other events, that seem similar, are not.
First things first. I need to state, right up front, that I am the father of a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Thus, I am quite familiar with this rather unique campus, which, while operating with a title that sounds like a commuter school, is actually an unusually diverse and proudly nerdy honors campus. UMBC is turning into an important story in Baltimore, in Maryland and in higher education, in general.
So The Washington Post ran a story the other day that made me feel very strange, for strictly journalistic and, yes, political reasons.
So, The New York Times ran one of those lengthy news features the other day that set out to penetrate the walls of Barack Obama’s White House and show readers what is really happening on the inside, in the halls of power that are the center of all that is important in the universe.
I will be the first person to admit that I did a double-take when I saw the short, one-line New York Times front page headline — online and iPad, at this stage — for its obituary for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
Is this Spanish news magazine cover of Michelle Obama art or porn? Is it racist and sexist? Or is it a political fantasy of the noble savage, an incisive commentary on the centrality of Mrs. Obama’s sexuality in the presidential election campaign? Is it Granada I see or only Asbury Park in this profile of the First Lady?
I realize that this is strange, but I continue to read press reports (wink, wink) containing evidence that Mitt Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that this could cause him trouble with evangelical Protestant Christians. Am I alone in reading about this?
One of the best strategies journalists can use when dealing with religious people — especially those with intense and even unusual, beliefs — is to give these folks some time and space in which to explain what they do believe (and often what they do NOT believe). I have been waiting for a major news publication to attempt this approach with supporters of Todd Akin’s stunningly strange beliefs on conception and rape, if such people can be found and accurately quoted.
