Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
After the embarrassment of last week’s CNN-YouTube debate, you might think other media outlets wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. Ordinary voters were given the chance to ask candidates questions via video. But many of the questioners weren’t so ordinary, including one man who served on two of Hillary Clinton’s committees.
I am enough of a news junkie that I really enjoy popping open a dead-tree-pulp newspaper and bumping into a story that is totally off my radar.
Suppose American politics were a colas war, with conservatives representing Coca Cola and liberals Pepsi. A reporter tells you that a top presidential candidate drinks neither brand. That would be a real insight, right?
Our founder tmatt is too busy today to do an end-zone backflip, so I will comment on the news of Mitt Romney’s impending speech about his faith.
I’m down in Florida for the week to watch a friend of the family take the next space shuttle into orbit, which means two things. One, I get to read different papers. Two, I’ll be preparing to watch Atlantis lift off when Mitt Romney gives the speech heard ’round the world. I’m sure we’ll be looking at media coverage of one of those two events as we progress through the week.
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune reporter Rochelle Olson wrote a story that’s not really about religion. It’s about corporal punishment — whether and when the government can involve itself in private family disciplinary methods. It’s a fascinating topic, although it’s one mostly outside the scope of this blog. But the lede was framed in an interesting manner:
People read different newspapers for different reasons and, here in Beltway land, one of the main reasons people read The Washington Times is to be able to listen to some of the inside conversations in the conservative establishment — including its discontents. It’s kind of like centrist, churchgoing Democrats trying to read between the lines in E. J. Dionne Jr. columns in The Washington Post.
