Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
And then there was the funeral, with flowers, politicos, hymns, memories, televangelists and that final ironic detail — a potential whiff of napalm as a Liberty University student prepared a few makeshift bombs to drive away the right, right, right fundamentalists who planned to protest the work of that infamous liberal and sell-out Jerry Fallwell.
In recent weeks we’ve seen a couple of really good articles about the ethics and values of abortion supporters. Liza Mundy, a staff writer for The Washington Post Magazine, had another excellent entry that relates to the topic with her Sunday piece on women pregnant with more than one fetus who wish they had fewer.
For the past few days I have been on the road and away from a steady Internet link. However, even during a drive from Boston to Baltimore, I was plugged in enough to the mainstream media (and the Drudge Report) to know that GetReligion’s friend Frank “Bible Belt Blogger” Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had an interesting story on his hands.
It would be interesting to know if New York Times reporters Michael Luo and Laurie Goodstein started work on their above-the-fold A1 story on the “new breed of evangelicals” before Jerry Falwell died last week. The story has been much discussed in the blog world (it’s currently number 9 on the NYT‘s list of most blogged stories in the last three days), but there really isn’t much new in this report.
Both Time and Newsweek have chosen to bid farewell to Jerry Falwell with one-page essays on whether Falwell’s death also means trouble for the political involvement of conservative evangelicals in politics.
As you can see in the video to the right, reporting on Scientology can drive a reporter to fits of rage. In the case of reporter John Sweeney, of the BBC’s Panorama, the fits were caught on video and, thanks to YouTube, became a sidebar.
One of the things I wish more reporters had the opportunity to do is be interviewed by other reporters. I’ve had my share of experiences being on the other end of the pad and pen. In some cases, the reporter is thorough and takes the time to really understand what you are saying. I’ve also been misquoted, which is an absolutely horrifying experience. In one case, I was misquoted to say the opposite of what I was actually saying. I called the reporter to complain and she yelled at me. I mean, really!
Ever since the so-called New Age era, I have been interested in the rise of Wicca and the whole neopagan scene. This trend raises all kinds of interesting issues of coven and state (Do conservative Christians really want equal access laws?), and you really can’t talk about faith in popular culture, especially Hollywood, without dealing with the new consumer-friendly forms of paganism.
