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Two weeks ago, I criticized national magazines’ coverage of Sarah Palin’s faith for providing more facts than explanations. Today I criticize Newsweek‘s cover story about Palin for … providing more facts than explanations. As you can see, I am breaking new intellectual ground!
Give credit to Michael Slackman and Nadim Audi of The New York Times. For their story about Egyptians’ perceptions of the 9/11 attacks, the two reporters were not content to flip through their rolodexes and call a bunch of experts. No, they interviewed ordinary Egyptians on the street. The fruits of their shoe-leather reporting were mostly ripe.
Okay, we’re getting quite a bit of reader reaction to Charlie Gibson’s interview of Gov. Sarah Palin airing on ABC. Apparently Gibson messed up big time when he tried to explore Palin’s religious views. Here’s a portion of the transcript:
The News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington, had an intriguing article last week on the Catholic Church’s official opposition and efforts to raise funds to fight against the state of Washington’s “Death with Dignity” campaign, as it is dubbed by supporters. The article focuses fairly exclusively on the Catholic Church’s opposition to the campaign (which will be on the state’s November ballot). There is a brief description of the proposal with a mention that it is modeled after an Oregon law.
One of the problems with the mainstream media’s rush to the gutter in the early days following her being named for the VP slot is that their entire reputation has been shot. So many people disliked what they saw and read in the first week that they’ve lost a level of trust with the media. It’s important, though, to understand that the desire for information about Palin is legitimate and good and it’s the point of having a press.
Sen. Joe Biden was on Meet the Press this past Sunday and he had some comments about his religious views.
So earlier today we looked at how the drama of a CNN headline, subhead and “story highlights” about Gov. Sarah Palin’s religious views were not matched by any facts in the subsequent story. But apparently that is not keeping CNN from just plowing on ahead.
It is my deep conviction that many religious people, and certainly most conservative Christians, do not “get” the important role that the press plays in a free society — just as many or most journalists do not “get” religion.
Hundreds of reporters have written about Bristol Palin’s unborn child. Yet few have examined the other unusual child in the Family Palin: Trig, the 4-month-old boy who has Down syndrome.
