Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Yesterday we looked at the bizarrely-limited-but-not-otherwise-bad coverage of the religion angles in recent debates over whether to change marriage law. I suggested in the comments to that post that some reporters were neither curious nor terribly thoughtful in how they approached the topic.
Rolling Stone‘s piece on “Michele Bachmann’s Holy War” is “The Hit Piece That Hit Itself,” as John Hudson says, a profile that raises ethical questions about drawing heavily from previous reporting and what passes for journalism, even for magazines that allow more directed reporting.
A report about Delta airlines refusing to fly Jews to Saudi Arabia lit up the internet yesterday. But within hours, some of the stories were altered or pulled and I’m still trying to sort out not just what happened but what it all means. I’m going to try to reconstruct things as best I can and then ask some questions at the end. You may not need all this reconstruction, so feel free to skip to the end.
I love it when reporters look for religion angles in political stories, I really do. Sometimes, though, a reporter tries too hard to see a faith angle. Consider Joshua Green’s post for The Atlantic on Jon Huntsman’s new website, www.Jon2012.com, and whether it has any biblical implications, referring to the New Testament passage John 20:12.
When it comes to Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his views on religion in the public square, I’ve had my own harsh words but I really had trouble with a news article I read earlier this week from the Houston Chronicle.
The Burlington Free Press has an interesting story with “Fair Haven’s censorship of valedictorian’s speech on God reflects church-state tensions.” But I’m not sure that headline is accurate of the situation. It is an accurate summary of the story, however. It begins:
It’s no secret that GOP leading candidate Mitt Romney is Mormon, and reporters appear so enamored with his faith that they forget to cover the other candidates’ religious affiliations.
