Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
About a year ago, during a book tour to promote “Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion,” I had a chance to take part in a forum for young journalists at a media institute in Bangalore, India. As you would expect, the topic for the day was improving mainstream media coverage of religion.
The Tennessean published a pretty good article from Bob Smietana over the weekend that dealt with a Muslim groups defeated mosque-permit application. The article discusses familiar themes of NIMBYism and is laced with Islamophobic sentiments from the most vocal opponents of the project:
One of the worst movie experiences of my life was watching Sex and the City. I know it was a big hit but the whole thing just annoyed me. And not just because of the jokes about losing control of one’s bowels. Certainly the moral message of the film didn’t sit well with me either. It’s not like I’m a snobby consumer of entertainment. I was an enthusiastic watcher of the HBO series. (I know, I know.)
Don’t read this compelling piece of journalism by The Associated Press’ Michelle Faul unless you’re ready to shed a few tears — or a whole lot of tears.
While this may sound rather strange, a recent Religion News Service piece on the debates surrounding Rima Fakih — “Muslim Miss USA: Progress, or immodesty?” — sort of ticked me off, but for the same reason that I also wanted to praise it.
Long-time readers of GetReligion know that since the beginning of this blog we’ve been playing whack-a-mole with reporters who misuse the term “fundamentalist.”
The New York Review of Magazines describes itself as “an unabashed celebration of magazines,” so it’s no wonder the annual magazine would eventually turn its attention to “The Most Widely Read Magazine in the World.”
If you are interested in the future of Islam, which means you are interested in the future of world affairs, then you are interested in Indonesia.
The following information is sad, but true. It is very common for mainstream journalists, especially wire-service reporters in foreign bureaus, to have to write about events that they do not have the time or money to cover in person.
