Politics

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Phony outrage over "phony theology"?

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It’s been an interesting, if tiring, few weeks in media criticism and the culture wars. We saw how national media figures immediately jumped to help Planned Parenthood’s campaign against the Komen Foundation and how they have been working hard to frame objections to a federal mandate (that critics say seriously harms religious liberty) as a war on women. So when news broke this weekend about some supposedly alarming things that Rick Santorum said, I wasn’t sure I could handle another round.


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Stalking the mythical 'Catholic vote,' yet again

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GetReligion readers who frequent the CNN Belief blog know that it features a wide range of material, from hard news stories to essays by academics. A recent offering falls into this latter category, but I still think GetReligion readers will want to know about it since it focuses on a topic that frequently comes up for discussions on this blog.


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Media ignore women, for women

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Yesterday, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee had a hearing on threats to religious liberty. The Republicans on that committee were trying to make President Obama look bad, because of his recent edict requiring religious groups to provide insurance policies that violate their doctrines. The Democrats on the Committee staged a walkout because some of the panelists who were brought on to discuss questions of religious liberty had male parts.


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In HHS flap, media prefer politics to religion

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For the second time in as many weeks, I want to highlight a discussion on media criticism that was led by CNN Reliable Sources host Howard Kurtz. I wish I could embed the video here but you’ll have to click this link to watch it. It is about 10 minutes long but it’s a fascinating discussion. I’m not saying I agree with everything in the discussion — I don’t — but it’s the type of conversation that will interest readers of GetReligion and give us some things to think on.


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Idealism and Italian taxes

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Plans to end property tax exemptions for the Catholic Church are one of the top stories in the Italian press this morning. On 15 Feb 2012 Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti released a statement saying he will introduce legislation requiring the Catholic Church to pay taxes on all its commercial properties.


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Lies, damned lies and 98 percent of Catholic women

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I’ve mentioned before that I once had to get a special dispensation to work at a newspaper because my degree was not in journalism but, rather, in economics. Have you ever been in a newsroom with a bunch of journalism grads who don’t know how to calculate anything meaningful about, say, the most recently released budget document because, well, their degrees are in journalism? I have. It’s not pretty. If you think some reporters have trouble getting religion, let me assure you that many reporters also have trouble getting statistics.


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Hey Times folks! Can you say "equal access"?

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On one level, the ongoing New York Times coverage of the church-state showdown over rental policies in city public schools has shown an admirable interest in the plight of specific churches that are struggling to find new homes.


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When blasphemy meets Twitter

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Have you heard about the plight of Hamza Kashgari? He’s a young Saudi journalist who fled his country to avoid being killed for a few things he tweeted about Muslim Prophet Muhammad. The video embedded here is of Saudi Sheikh Nasser al Omar calling on the King to enforce Islam’s death penalty for apostasy, which many Muslims believe Kashgari committed.


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