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Would a Martian grant Diane Sawyer an interview?

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Imagine the better sense of goodwill that might now extend to The Passion of the Christ if Mel Gibson had talked even two hours per week in recent months with print journalists who know how to ask thoughtful questions. Diane Sawyer did about as well as one might hope for from a TV celebrity who’s famous for lobbing softball questions to people who are famous for being famous — or, in the case of Gibson, asking skeptical but poorly formed questions in an effort at being a tough interviewer.


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James Davison Hunter, please call your service

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It’s hard not to think of Dr. James Davison Hunter when reading the Los Angeles Times Magazine’s lengthy piece on Catholic traditionalists. Hunter is the sociologist who wrote “Culture Wars,” an influential book a decade or so ago that claimed to have found the dividing line in America’s moral and religious battles over sex and salvation and lots of other things.


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Blood, sweat & tears

Compared to Newsweek‘s cover story, Entertainment Weekly‘s “The Agony & the Ecstasy” is the very model of shoe-leather journalism. Author Jeff Jensen, denied access to a screening of The Passion of the Christ or interviews with director Mel Gibson and star Jim Caviezel, spoke with more than two dozen other people, both defenders and critics of Gibson’s film.


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