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Following on Doug’s questions about differences in media coverage of the murders of Dr. George Tiller and Army recruiter Pvt. William Long, it’s been interesting to see how different political groups are talking about the two murders.
Here’s a journalistic mystery: Why the difference between news coverage about the murders of abortion specialist George Tiller of Wichita, Kansas, and Army recruiter Pvt. William Long of Conway, Arkansas?
Sadly, innocent blood has once again been shed in Northern Ireland. Last week in County Londonderry Kevin McDaid was beaten to death by a mob who had left a football match, gone drinking and from there to his Catholic area. According to various media, McDaid was a “community worker” committed to helping reduce tensions in his area. Here’s the lede from the story posted on the Times Online website:
I confess that I really, really think that this Associated Press report needed to be much, much longer.
It’s getting harder and harder to read the coverage of the George Tiller murder, in large part because the Associated Press Stylebook doesn’t have separate references for “pro-life” and “anti-abortion.”
For a while I was complaining that the mainstream media hadn’t really covered how the clash over same-sex marriage affected religious groups. So in that regard, I’m pleased to see this story by the Washington Post‘s Karl Vick about how some supporters of same-sex marriage are engaged in, to put it in the most charitable way I can, a public relations campaign against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The story, headlined “‘The Mormons are Coming!’” has some major-league weaknesses, however:
The murder of a physician who performs abortions has become a bewildering ritual of individual desperation, occurring four times since 1993. It also has become a ritual test of journalists’ abilities to report the news calmly and fairly.
Before I head out the door to the airport here in Kiev (after spending most of Sunday here), I thought I would quickly put up a non-news, but religion-beat oriented, note from Rod “friend of this blog” Dreher.
