Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
On Monday I offered some thoughts about a New York Times piece that looked at a crisis pregnancy center that offers ultrasounds, counseling, diapers, baby clothes and adoption referrals. I had mixed feelings about the piece. It began quite well but fell prey to some of the classic problems reporters have when covering the abortion issue.
In reaction to my latest post about media bias, Dallas Morning News editorial writer Rod “friend of this blog” Dreher posted a short item on that newspaper’s editorial page blog in which he asked his colleagues for their reaction to it. The key question: Am I on to something when I insist that the key media-bias issue today is that the vast majority of mainstream journalists are sailing left on moral and cultural issues, as opposed to issues of economics, foreign policy, health care and other similar “political” issues?
I always find it interesting which movies political groups and churches choose to protest against. There have been many stories about the reaction to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain but relatively few about the #1 movie in the country this week: Hostel.
I’m having trouble keeping up with the Rev. Pat Robertson’s obnoxious comments. Was his last one about New Orleans and God’s wrath? Assassinating South American leaders? Or was it regarding some Pennsylvania town? Or on the health of a Middle East head of state?
Before I launch into the morning cyber-papers, let me share a glimpse of what I will be looking for on this holiday.
This morning’s Washington Post contained an example of something I believe we need to see more in America’s newspapers. Karl Vick of the Washington Post Foreign Service details in an A1 story a current hot issue in Muslim communities regarding the ground swelling of support for the return of a caliphate to unite believers of Islam.
Yesterday, the Washington Post ran a profile of Kate Michelman. I’m not sure if they were trying to push her new book or push her appearance before the Alito hearings today, but they were pushing something. If NARAL Pro-Choice America itself had written the piece, it probably would have had more perspective.
For a glimpse into Hollywood’s ongoing efforts to empower women, please click here. Actress Kari Wuhrer is convinced that she was fired from “General Hospital” because she became pregnant. Thus, she is suing ABC-TV, seeking $3 million in damages.
This is slightly outside of the normal media coverage we follow, but I couldn’t help but notice that ghosts and religious terminology abound in recent stories about author James Frey. This is the man who wrote an exaggerated or possibly even fictional account of a drug- and alcohol-addled life of crime and successfully passed it off as his factual memoir A Million Little Pieces, which sold a gazillion copies and recently was selected for Oprah’s Book Club.
