Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Gentle readers, it’s time to set the wayback machine to May 12th in the year 2008, where we read the following in a New York Times op-ed page piece written by historian Edward N. Luttwak, of the Center for Strategic andInternational Studies.
So, raise your hands if you are, from time to time, frustrated by news reports that are based on survey data? I know this is a regular subject for posts by the Divine Mrs. M.Z. Hemingway, but I would like to step in here and shout an “Amen” anyway.
Regular GetReligion readers know all about our M.O. on this blog. Our goal is to pick away at the errors that regularly mar mainstream coverage of religion news, while paying special attention to stories that are haunted by “ghosts,” which we define as major religious issues or themes in stories that journalists have missed or mangled (or both).
Standing in a gift shop line at the Memphis International Airport on Friday, I spotted a familiar face, one I hadn’t seen in a while. There he was right in front of me — the Rev. Al Sharpton. Not in person, mind you, but staring at me from the cover of Newsweek magazine.
Remember the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright? It’s been a few years since the White House campaign, so let’s review. Wright was President Obama’s pastor who made controversial remarks in his sermons, such as suggesting the U.S. should be damned. Obama gave a speech on race and religion and eventually broke ties with Wright during the 2008 campaign.
There is no question that the following story from Canada.com and the Calgary Herald is, when push comes to shove, a crime story. Yet the lede signals that something else is going on, something that readers have to wait a long, long time to find out when reading this report.
If you are a fan of professional football — especially if you live in Nashville or Baltimore — the July 4th weekend marked the anniversary of the murder of Steve McNair.
There’s been a lot of political coverage lately of Nikki Haley and the South Carolina gubernatorial primary. That race has been rife with religious ghosts ever since a state senator called Haley, a former Sikh who converted to Christianity, a “raghead.” Ever since then, supporters of her primary opponent Gresham Barrett have been trying to raise the issue of her religion in a rather slimy fashion.
As young master Brad A. Greenberg noted the other day, Archbishop Jose Gomez has arrived on the West Coast where he will soon become the shepherd of the giant and influential Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. This means he will almost certainly be given a brand new red hat, sooner rather than later, making this very traditional Catholic one of America’s most prominent Latino leaders — period.
