Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
When I first received a forward of this story, I thought for a second that it might be an urban legend. But no, it does seem to have been posted by the Associated Press. I have not seen it in any Florida media, however, and that surprises me. Rather than critique this simple story, let’s just read the heart of it.
When you read about a sporting event, the first thing you what to know is who won and who lost. The same thing applies to elections and U.S. Supreme Court cases.
Let me join the Rt. Rev. LeBlanc in praising the 1,400-word essay by Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times that used the word “fundamentalism” 15 times without veering into the cheap-shot territory that earns reporters a note in our Creeping Fundamentalism files. Let all the people say, “amen,” or “bravo,” or whatever.
Rob Moll is back with another special edition of the CT weblog dedicated to the tsunami and its aftermath. The key is that the story is now developing on hard news fronts, from trafficking of children to terrorist infiltration, to feature stories about the “Where was God?” question and the positions taken by various leaders within various world religions. It’s an educational moment, while heroes and villains continue to work on the front lines. And what are some of the true fundamentalists saying? You don’t want to know.
White House speechwriter Michael Gerson told a funny but poignant personal story as he began his Dec. 6 presentation at an Ethics & Public Policy Center seminar in Key West, Fla.
OK, the British news story wasn’t that long to begin with. But people keep sending it to me and, after days of the barrage, I have decided to (a) relent and (b) link it to another subject we have been dealing with for some time now.
I just got off an airplane returning from a brief research trip to Tampa, where I spent a wonderful day at the Poynter Institute talking to the usual cast of bright people about newspapers, blogs, religion news, editors, reporters, producers, the future of news and all kinds of connected stuff. What can I say? It’s what I do.
It took several days for the mainstream media to find a way to focus on the religious element of tsunami tragedy in South and Southeast Asia. This often happens with events that are simply too stunning and too important for the leaders of major print and electronic media to see them as “religion stories.”
Anyone who has been reading GetReligion in the wake of 11/2 knows I am convinced that one of the major stories of 2005 will be the early signs of what the religious left will do to help the political left address the “pew gap.”
