Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
For public schools in Washington, despite their spending an average of $25,000 per year on each student, the educational results are abysmal. Some people have high hopes for the new chancellor Michelle Rhee but there’s a long way to go.
Sally Quinn can be a charming and entertaining writer, especially on the topic of throwing a great party. With her Saturday op-ed for The Washington Post, however, Quinn calls more attention to her poorly informed and utilitarian understanding of why a church exists.
Over at Time, reporter Jeff Israely has a piece up that asks a logical question — from the point of view of activists on left and right who are paying attention to (a) the pre- and post-election strategy wars inside the pro-life movement and (b) loud cries of distress from traditionalist religious leaders about President-elect Barack Obama’s vow to push for the Freedom of Choice Act.
For the second week in a row, the Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell has devoted her column to the problem of media bias. I always get a kick out of how the media treats problems in the media industry relative to problems in other industries. All of that investigative journalism, take-no-prisoners attitude and hard-hitting reporting suddenly disappears and we get limp and timid copy.
Remember the media narrative from the 2004 election? To explain how the country could have possibly elected George W. Bush for a second term, we were told that throngs of homophobic, Red America values-voters surged to the polls. Never mind that it wasn’t true. Bush got more evangelical voters than Republicans traditionally had, but he got more of all sorts of groups.
Remember August (yes, it seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?) when the McCain campaign produced this Internet ad?
Love it or hate it, the Washington Post is a fine newspaper and it is very rare to see a story hit its front page with a large and glaring hole in it. But that’s what happened today, with the story that ran with the headline “Some Abortion Foes Shifting Focus From Ban to Reduction.”
There are almost too many stories about California’s Proposition 8 to keep up. But let’s look at a few dealing with religious groups.
Amy Sullivan of Time has written about six church options for President-elect Barack Obama and his family — and, hold the phone, the list does not include St. John’s, Lafayette Square (“the church of the presidents”) or Washington National Cathedral.
