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Unless you have been on another planet for several decades, you have heard the phrase “War on Christmas” tossed about in the mainstream press and Fox News, too (cue: rim shot and cymbal).
Some of my favorite headlines from The Onion are ones about your average Joe as if it’s a big deal, like “Area Man Consults Internet Whenever Possible” or “Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff.”
If you backed up a few years, or even a decade or two, one of the subjects that religion writers in the mainstream press used to debate could be summed up in this question: “Are religion columns a good thing?”
Every year we read about the War on Christmas. The mainstream media love to cover stories about those Scrooges who ban the use of any specific greetings related to Christmas and the old curmudgeons who complain about the same.
We received a note the other day from a priest asking us to call attention to a South Bend Tribune editorial marking the retirement of Bishop John D’Arcy from the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Even though GetReligion focuses on news reports, not editorial, this correspondent thought we would appreciate the respectful and balanced tone in this piece — especially considering the bishop’s role in the events surrounding President Barack Obama’s visit to the University of Notre Dame to received an honorary doctorate in law, in clear violation of a policy statement by the U.S. Catholic bishops.
Caught up in the holiday weekend’s spirit of thankfulness, I want to reach back to last weekend and Pope Benedict’s meeting with artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel, which was covered by The New York Times’ Rachel Donadio:
Want to see how worthless vague religious labels can be when used in the mainstream press? Here’s a classic example from an ongoing story in Jackson, Mich., where a priest who backs church traditions — which ones, we are never really told — is clashing with many leaders in a “progressive” Catholic parish.
I was having a private conversation the other day, soon after the Fort Hood massacre, with a specialist in issues of religious freedom and, in particular, Jihadist persecution of moderate Muslims and various religious minorities in predominately Muslim lands.
If you were creating the Ten Commandments of daily Journalism, you would certainly find the statement, “All news is local,” somewhere near the top of the list (but after “Don’t bury the lede”).
