Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Pity “moderate” Republicans. They are having hard times at the moment, as spotlighted in a recent New York Times feature by reporter Pam Belluck. The entire story is a master class in how to use and abuse weighted words such as “centrist” and “moderate,” even though top leaders at the newspaper know — and have said they know — that this is a sore point with readers.
The Washington Post has a religion-heavy article on Nicaragua’s therapeutic abortion ban. Until a few weeks ago Nicaragua permitted abortions to be performed on women who had been raped, whose babies were abnormal or who faced medical risk, according to reporter N.C. Aizenman. Abortion opponents claimed that the loophole for therapeutic abortions was being abused.
Press reports are starting to filter in on Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Turkey for the Feast of St. Andrew.
Nothing annoys me more thatn when people want to talk about another person’s underwear. Particularly when there are more important things to talk about. For this reason, this post will remain brief.
Can you believe it was less than one month ago that we first discussed coverage of Ted Haggard’s fall from prominence? As November has progressed, we have seen quite a few stories related to the ordeal. The early days of the story focused on the hypocrisy angle, about which I highlighted an alternate view.
In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law against sodomy. “Freedom extends beyond spatial bounds. Liberty presumes an autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief, expression, and certain intimate conduct,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court.
One of the most important things that journalists get to do is pick the right words to describe complex situations, especially when defining what religious believers do or do not believe.
I generally like lists. But only if they’re good lists. And by good I mean lists that generally agree with how I see things. In other words, this week’s Washington Post “Ranking the League” (about the National Football League) is a bunch of garbage. The Indianapolis Colts are not #1. Somehow the geniuses over on 15th Street think that the San Diego Chargers and the Chicago Bears are better than the Peyton Manning’s Colts. Go figure.
The Los Angeles Times did us all a favor earlier this week by posting the text of a sermon given in 2004 that has All Saints Episcopal Church under an Internal Revenue Service investigation. In the age of the Internet, all reporters need to follow this practice because there is really no reason not to.
