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During the 25 years or so I have been studying the religion beat, I have read more than my share of stories and statistics about media bias. It is still a subject that makes headlines several times a year, with roots running deep into the world of politics as well as religion.
Regular readers of GetReligion may recall that I am not a big fan of my local daily newspaper, The Palm Beach Post. I could cite a number of past complaints, but we will settle for this one (a rant about what I believe is the weakest weekly religion-beat column in America).
Perhaps The Christian Science Monitor did have a hot story in post-election Iraq. At least, the Los Angeles Times has followed up with a major story, with the headline: “Iraq’s Sunni Arabs Seek Their Voice.” Reporter Richard Boudreaux notes: “The chief, Mazin Jaber Nima, said the Sunni Arab-led insurgency against American troops would falter if Sunni Arabs joined in the U.S.-backed creation of a new political order. Applause filled the Babylon Hotel’s ballroom, but the next speaker was undeterred. “The subject today is how to represent the Sunni people in the political process,” argued Sheik Isam Sheikhli. “Do we do it with slogans? If we go on like this, we will not achieve a thing.” Uh, is it just me or is the time element rather weak in this story? When was this?
I meant to put this up earlier, but decided not to double up on the Rt. Rev. LeBlanc’s latest Ashley Smith post. Veteran USA Today religion scribe Cathy Lynn Grossman landed the interview that everyone knew was coming sooner or later — with Purpose-Driven Pastor Rick Warren. As it turns out, he has been counseling Smith via telephone and email, although that took some doing since he was in Africa. Africa is also the beneficiary of many, many of the dollars he has earned with his best-selling books. There are other crisp details in the story, which can be found in the Christianity Today weblog guide to the Smith story. Here is a choice quote from Grossman’s short but newsy story: “Warren steered any credit back to God and the Bible. “There’s not a single new thought in Purpose-Driven Life that hasn’t been said in historic Christianity or Judaism. I’m just a communicator for the 21st century.”
OK, tell me you did not see this one coming. The digital Talmud? Why not? In fact, I am amazed that there isn’t an entire seminary curriculum loaded onto iPods somewhere. What happens to doctrine when you hit shuffle? Here is a taste of reporter Alex Mindlin’s report in (naturally) The New York Times: “At the door, handing out leaflets beside the Jews for Jesus and the teenage collectors for Jewish charities, was a 23-year-old entrepreneur named Yehuda Shmidman, who was passing out glossy brochures showing a bearded, black-hatted Orthodox Jew, in silhouette, wearing a pair of white ear buds. Shmidman’s product, the ShasPod, is a solution to a vexing question: How does a commuter study a 2,711-page book?”
Here’s an interesting commentary from a reader: “Does the Schiavo case implicitly, or maybe explicitly, acknowledge the validity of polygamy? . . . I saw a lawyer on the news last night going down a laundry list of Terri’s decisions and rights, and, to my knowledge, all of this flows from her husband speaking on her behalf. If Mrs. Schiavo II could sue him now for wife-like rights should they separate, the state is honoring polygamy.” The state of Florida does not recognize what in some places is still called Common Law Marriage. But a decade or so and two children? What legal status does Michael’s live-in almost-wife have, in the eyes of the state? Meanwhile, Kathleen Parker asks another question: “When is a husband not a husband?”
Sometimes you see a story and you can’t believe what you are reading. I have been watching Google News pretty carefully on this and, unless my search terms are not up to snuff, I think The Christian Science Monitor is way out in front on a major story in Iraq.
