Blue Republicans singing the blues

Pity “moderate” Republicans. They are having hard times at the moment, as spotlighted in a recent New York Times feature by reporter Pam Belluck. The entire story is a master class in how to use and abuse weighted words such as “centrist” and “moderate,” even though top leaders at the newspaper know — and have said they know — that this is a sore point with readers.


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Landmines in abortion reporting

The Washington Post has a religion-heavy article on Nicaragua’s therapeutic abortion ban. Until a few weeks ago Nicaragua permitted abortions to be performed on women who had been raped, whose babies were abnormal or who faced medical risk, according to reporter N.C. Aizenman. Abortion opponents claimed that the loophole for therapeutic abortions was being abused.


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Presiding bishop wronged by shallow newspaper

Thanks to the energy of GetReligion reader Greg Popcak, we now know that the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church does not share my enthusiasm for the contents of that strange little New York Times Magazine mini-interview with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.


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In praise of valid news angles

Can you believe it was less than one month ago that we first discussed coverage of Ted Haggard’s fall from prominence? As November has progressed, we have seen quite a few stories related to the ordeal. The early days of the story focused on the hypocrisy angle, about which I highlighted an alternate view.


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It's hard to write about a father confessor

Due to a horrible cold, I have been hiding out at home almost all weekend. Thus, I was not able to go to the funeral rites for Father George Calciu at Holy Cross Romanian Orthodox Church in Alexandria, Va. The Divine Liturgy began several hours ago and the actual funeral is beginning as I type this.


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Round up the usual suspects!

Sorry for the delay on this one folks. I have, for some time now, been meaning to post the link to some interesting comments from the noted Vatican watcher John L. Allen Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter. In a way, it’s a meditation on the need for reporters — especially when covering Roman and American Catholicism — to dig past the easy layers of official sources and talk to real people on both sides of the church aisle.


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