, , , , ,

Should old Godbeat acquaintance be forgot...

, , , , ,

I suppose all good things must come to an end eventually but, after 20 years, the final New York Times‘ Beliefs column was printed on New Year’s Day. Terry, as usual, had some vital things to say about this development on the Godbeat — so go read his post below already if you haven’t done so now. Still, a major development has room for more than one us here at GR to comment on, even if Tmatt is a tough act to follow.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , ,

News and Beliefs at the Times

, , ,

In July of 1997, the U.S. State Department, after months of pressure from human-rights activists, released its first global report on the persecution of religious minorities. The report was six months overdue and, thus, had not been released during a tense campaign by the Clinton White House to obtain Most Favored Nation trade status for China.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , ,

Nelson’s health care problem

, , ,

Ben Nelson is facing some bad news back home in Nebraska after he switched his vote to support the Senate’s health care bill. A Rasmussen survey shows 55 percent of Nebraska voters now hold an unfavorable view of Nelson, who is up for re-election in 2012, while 40 percent view him favorably. So Nelson took to the airwaves during the University of Nebraska’s Holiday Bowl on Wednesday to defend his position, but some reporters seem to forget what started it all: abortion.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , ,

The 'why' of terrorism

, , , , , , , ,

Last week I read a Washington Post article about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with attempting to bomb a flight to Detroit. In the same way that some media coverage of Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan explored his mental state, this Post article took the clinical approach with Abdulmutallab. Like Hasan, he was lonely and wanted to find a wife.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , ,

Hey pope, go hide somewhere

, , , , , ,

For years, our missing co-founder Douglas LeBlanc was the GetReligionista who was officially in charge of posting “hathos” alerts linked to mainstream media coverage of religion news. He’s still out there, lurking, and he sent us an alert this morning for the first hathos alert of 2010 and it is a goodie.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , ,

What Catholic media bias?

, , , , ,

GetReligion readers likely are familiar with John Allen, the National Catholic Reporter‘s ace Vatican reporter. His latest column analyzes the biggest Vatican stories of the last 10 years. An aside: is anyone else annoyed at all of these “best of decade” lists coming a year prior to the end of the actual decade?


Please respect our Commenting Policy