Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
It seems like just a few months ago that I was compiling my list of top stories from the previous year. Regardless of how quickly I would like to see time fly by, what follows is my summary from the past year and a celebration of this blog’s five years in existence.
When the Episcopal Bishop of Washington participates in a conference on religion and politics, it’s not necessarily newsworthy. When that conference takes place in Tehran, Iran, and the same bishop has a private meeting with the theocratic nation’s top spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Hoseini Khamenei, it deserves more attention.
One of the mantras of modern journalism is, “Show me, don’t tell me.” In other words, when in doubt use images and information that describe people and events, not tacked-on labels that are often vague and judgmental.
What was Pope Benedict’s intent when he revoked the excommunications of four bishops (one of whom is a Holocaust-denier) from a movement that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church twenty years ago?
Let’s reach a few weeks back into tmatt’s infamous “folder of guilt” to look at an interesting New York Times piece about the growth of “religious media” in modern Russia.
In recent years I have had quite a few opportunities, during seminars with the Oxford Centre for Religion & Public Life, to talk with journalists from some very interesting and very tense corners of the world. Most of the time, we have focused on issues where the freedom of the press intersects with freedom of religion. At some point, free speech is free speech — whether one is a journalist, an evangelist or a political activist.
The Washington Post ran one of those stories the other day that was so sad, so heavy with fact and detail, that at the end of it you just wanted to sigh or cry or scream and throw something at a wall.
People in angry crowds shout all kinds of things, as anyone who has ever covered a protest rally can tell you.
One of the most important resources available to mainstream reporters is a solid, printed list of names attached to clear information or opinion about a hot issue.
