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OK, here is the modern question that seems to come up every few months in a major newspaper or wire service: If the pope says you are no longer a Catholic, are you still a Catholic?
Jimmy Carter apologized yesterday for a line in his recently released book, except that he didn’t, at least according to the Associated Press. The CNN clip presented here shows that while broadcasters played up Carter’s apology, most mainstream American media decided to play it down.
In his annual State of the Union address last night, President Bush did not let the absence of former chief speechwriter and Wheaton College graduate Michael Gerson keep him from talking about religion. Bush has been accused of allowing Gerson to slip in “code words” and phrases that allow him to secretly pander to America’s religious right, but this time Bush’s religiously oriented words caught the attention of a different audience.
Anyone watching the aftermath of Sunday night’s amazing AFC Championship game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots couldn’t help but be struck by the religious overtones in the language. Everyone, that is, except for the media, which seem to have so far ignored the religious elements of the story. I know that every other athlete credits God for their victories and accomplishments, but in this case, the story runs deeper and is genuinely more significant.
How delightful is it that both Hillary Clinton and Sam Brownback officially announced their plans to run for the presidency on the same sunny Saturday? Not that the announcements come as a surprise to anyone, but there is a slight irony that these two would share the spotlight.
What happens at Harvard University matters to journalists covering higher education. Whether you like it or not, as Hahvad goes, the rest of American academia goes, as the saying goes.
The best thing reporters can hear from editors is that they can have as much space as they need to tell the story. In an era of online publishing, this should be the case every time, but I don’t see reporters or their editors using that opportunity all that often.
The other day I chided some conservative Episcopalians — loyal GetReligion readers, even — for being so upset about a feature story in The Washington Post about the origins of the war between conservative Anglicans at Truro Episcopal Church and The Falls Church in Northern Virginia and liberal leaders of the national Episcopal Church establishment.
The Washington Post ran a short story on page A17 Friday about the religious makeup of the 110th Congress that highlighted the record-high number of Jewish lawmakers.
