Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
We’ve previously looked at media coverage of the rather public dispute between Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Bishop Thomas Tobin. Last week I suggested that reporters at least explain the Catholic understanding of scandal as it relates to the case. And this week, I noted the confusion many reporters have between banning a communicant and suggesting he refrain from taking communion.
Want to see how worthless vague religious labels can be when used in the mainstream press? Here’s a classic example from an ongoing story in Jackson, Mich., where a priest who backs church traditions — which ones, we are never really told — is clashing with many leaders in a “progressive” Catholic parish.
It’s not every day you read a story where the reporter describes the same person as a Jehovah’s Witness, a fundamentalist and an evangelical.
Last week I wrote a news story about the recent passage of the amendment restricting abortion funding and subsidies in the House health care legislation. I was interviewing various activists and one of them told me that they’d had to work solely through alternate media for the last 10 months because the mainstream media wasn’t doing a very good job of looking at the abortion issue as it related to the health care bill. Until, that is, about 48 hours prior to the vote on Rep. Bart Stupak’s amendment to the House legislation.
That’s not a rhetorical question, but a literal one explored in a Washington Post story by William Wan entitled, “Christian Scientists seek reimbursement for prayers.”
I was having a private conversation the other day, soon after the Fort Hood massacre, with a specialist in issues of religious freedom and, in particular, Jihadist persecution of moderate Muslims and various religious minorities in predominately Muslim lands.
On Sunday, I looked a bit at a Newsweek article by religion editor Lisa Miller. Her piece took a position I largely agree with — that there’s no need to say that accused Ft. Hood gunman Hasan is either mentally unstable or an Islamic terrorist. (Although, as I pointed out yesterday, there hasn’t been much evidence of diagnosable mental illness compared to the evidence mounting regarding terrorism.) But I had some issues with how well she made her case.
We’ve had quite a few readers submit stories dealing with Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s (D-R.I.) ongoing public battle with Bishop Thomas Tobin. The latest news arose from from this report of the Providence Journal headlined “Kennedy: Barred from Communion.” Here’s the beginning:
It’s a big, complex and confusing world out there. That’s why we need wise guides to help us make our way — guides like Benjamin Anastas, who clearly tells us where all the dumbass religious folks are so we can stay the heck away:
