Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Those who watched the Republican debate Thursday night might have noticed the lack of religious content. The debate was about the economy for the most part. The economic downturn is what is on everyone’s mind this week, and it could end up being the primary issue this election season.
The big, hot, all-consuming story these days inside the Beltway is the war of words between Barack Obama and Bill and-or Hillary Clinton. Things are getting really rough out there and, frankly, this is to be expected when one of the candidates — that would be Clinton — has such a high negative rating with the public. Close races cause heat.
After my last post about whether young people increasingly are pro-life, several readers responded to my statement that the March for Life resembled a “gigantic Catholic pep rally.” There was no real disagreement about this assertion.
The former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson has withdrawn from the 2008 presidential race, and leading candidates are lining up to try on the big shoes of the only candidate who once played the president in Hollywood. More than half of Thompson’s support came from Christian evangelicals. Where will those voters go? Both Romney and Huckabee are laying claim to that support. Does McCain have a chance at picking up that support?
New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse is not a stranger to her paper’s public editor column. In October 2006, former public editor Byron Calame discussed the problems that arose out of a speech she gave at Harvard University the previous June. That was the speech where she expressed some of her liberal political views, including:
There’s a controversy brewing in St. Louis that poses some interesting questions for journalists. St. Louis University basketball coach Rick Majerus went to a Hillary Clinton campaign rally on Saturday night where he was interviewed by KMOV, a local television station. During the interview, he expressed some views that are not in line with Catholic teaching. Which wouldn’t be news if he weren’t also being paid $650,000 a year by a Catholic university.
It is time to open up our Associate Press Stylebooks and read that entry, once again, about what is, sadly, one of the most popular words in modern journalism:
Trying to figure out how and why Senator John McCain triumphed over his competitors Saturday in the South Carolina primary is like trying to figure out why professional football teams have success in the playoffs. In other words, the calculus is not easy, but there are factors worth discussing.
