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Here’s a quick follow-up note on that post I offered about the disputed quotes between former President Bill Clinton and the Rev. Ed Young of the giant Second Baptist Church in Houston.
Any news story that is reliant on statements from public interest groups is bound to have some problems. News stories involving the appointment of federal judges with lifetime tenure are often Exhibit A, along with nearly any other story involving a controversial person being considered for a lifetime job.
A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted K. Connie Kang’s story in the Los Angeles Times about an interfaith worship service hosted by the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese. She wrote a detailed report that included the observation that Hindus had been invited to take communion during the service.
Remember that little discussion of “theodicy” that we had last weekend? This is actual a topic that journalists, as a rule, do not mind digging into from time to time. They enjoy putting God in the dock whenever there is a great tragedy, especially natural disasters.
Anybody remember the post-Super Bowl interview with New York Giants wide receiver David Tyree? That was the man who, just after making that amazing catch with his helmet and hands allowing the Giants to win the Super Bowl, thanked God on national television just for the chance to be out there.
The Clinton era has, so far, produced more than its share of he said-she said, or she said-he said or even he said-he said stories. It does not seem that this will end anytime soon, which puts journalists in an interesting position.
On Friday, we looked at some of the media coverage of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ suggestion that some aspects of sharia should be introduced in England. The response to Williams’ comments was so negative that some of the archbishop’s defenders proposed that people had misunderstood his comments. Some of them argued the press was to blame.
Columnist Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald wrote a story that blasted Catholic Bishop Richard Malone for reinstating a sexually deviant priest. Nemitz was too easy on the bishop. Instead of blasting Malone as irresponsible and tone deaf, Nemitz might easily have accused him of violating Church doctrine.
The story starts in a church, with a minister trying to figure out how to step into the pulpit and tell his congregation about a great, and seemingly senseless, tragedy in the congregation. Four people were dead and the worshippers were going to ask, “Why?”
