Politics

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Is Reuters denying Holocaust denial?

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Finding the line between sensation and responsible reporting can be a difficult task. There are times when the subject of a news story will say something outrageous that causes a reporter to lay down his pen and ask, “Did you really mean that?” Over the top quotes can make a story pop — providing better placement in a newspaper and a brief “buzz” for the story. It can also distort the narrative, changing the story from the issues under discussion to comments about the issues.


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Did Billy Graham really back Chick-fil-A?

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You may have heard, already, that the Rev. Billy Graham joined millions of other Americans by eating a symbolic Chick-fil-A sandwich on Wednesday.


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And now the kiss-in at Chick-fil-A

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Let’s do another quick recap on media coverage of the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. Yesterday we discussed the decision of Mark Krzos, a Fort Myers News-Press reporter, to publicly disparage the people he was covering for his local paper. We already updated the post to show that his editor responded to the controversy but you can also see his public statement denouncing the reporter’s comments at Romenesko.


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Forgiving monsters: The Dutroux Case

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One of the most notorious criminal cases in modern European history has returned to the public eye, dominating the front pages and leaders of Belgium’s newspapers. A judge has agreed to release Michelle Martin from prison on the condition she enter the Convent of the Les Soeurs Clarisses de Malonne (Poor Clares) and remain under police supervision.


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When hating on Chick-fil-A, try to hide it better (UPDATED)

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The Facebook page of Mark Krzos is like many others. He’s married to a beautiful woman. He really likes the band Ween. He posted an awesome Wilco performance from Jimmy Fallon the other night. He lets friends know that he’s incredulous that one congressman views an HHS mandate as a serious problem. He hopes that Gore Vidal rests in peace. There’s some hockey stuff. He really doesn’t like Mitt Romney. Like, really doesn’t like him. He is a huge fan of President Barack Obama. He’s got a post with the note “We are a PROUD city” showing the letter Boston Mayor Thomas Menino sent Chick-fil-A telling them that their CEO’s religious views meant that there was “no place” in Boston for Chick-fil-A. There’s some other anti-Chick-fil-A stuff. Some mockery of creationists. The usual.


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Democrats back gay marriage: Who you gonna call?

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At the moment, I am up in the mountains of North Carolina, which is one of those places where the occasional Democrat running for higher office will go out of his or her way to put the word “conservative” on the campaign yard signs so that they can try to hang on to the remnant of the good old days down here in the Bible Belt.


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Report on prayer amendment: fair or biased?

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The lead story on the front page of today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch — right there beside coverage of the Olympics — is an in-depth examination of a proposed Missouri state amendment related to prayer.


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London 2012 fetes British ink, film and (gasp!) hymnody

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Folks, I have committed a serious sin that I hate to spot among other reporters. When searching for obvious religion, I overlooked the subtle spots.


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Catholics, Commies, and Gays -- Oh my!

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The story of Archbishop Róbert Bezák is ready made for the Da Vinci Code treatment. Yet the press has bungled a Catholic story — the Associated Press piece that ran in most U.S. newspapers devoted more space to a rehash of the clergy pedophile scandal than the church conflict in the Slovak Republic.


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