Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
You see, The Dallas Morning News has just finished taking a giant leap back into journalism history in a hellish three-part series built on the kind of serial, storytelling journalism that used to be common in American journalism. I think this is a good thing, when the material fits.
“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” Martin Luther King Jr. preached at Washington National Cathedral in March 1968. Robert Wright agrees, sort of, writing in the April Atlantic that “whether or not history has a purpose, its moral direction is hard to deny.” Wright’s essay is an 8,000-word argument that the three great monotheistic faiths may help create a more beneficent world through globalization.
The world’s economic troubles have many journalists writing articles about how the global society is changing as a consequence of the recession. For example, the Atlantic had this cover story on how communities like New York City will benefit from the financial crash (not exactly original or surprising considering the author). The Economist writes about how we may see a return “of economic nationalism.”
Since we’ve been looking at so many bad examples of journalism about embryonic stem cell research, it might be worth looking at one paper that has been doing a bit better.
Time had one of the more embarrassing stories on President Barack Obama’s decision to use taxpayer dollars to fund stem cell research that destroys embryos. Alice Park’s gushy mash note to Obama and his decision is just not up to snuff. I mean, with lines such as “The sigh of relief in labs across the country was almost audible,” you should know you’re not dealing with journalism:
This is one of those days when it’s easy to see why The Politico keeps making mainstream media people — a key cog in Democratic Party conversations — so nervous here in Washington, D.C. The new kids inside the Beltway continue to produce stories that stray way outside the borders of the establishment talking points.
The reaction continues to roll in as the mainstream press surfs through the results of the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), the one that points to the rising wave of the post-denominational age in American religion.
I don’t know about you, but when I read about the collapse of a pyramid scheme that takes down wealthy, well-educated investors and nonprofits, I shake my head and wonder how such smart people made such (in hindsight) dumb choices.
A few days ago, reader Derek pointed out the complete lack of mainstream media coverage of a rather shocking bill that was introduced in the Connecticut State Legislature.
