Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
On Saturday, I watched “Dirty Harry” for the first time. This was the beginning of an expedition through Clint Eastwood’s big-bark-and-all-bite police series. It followed through the “Dollar” spaghetti Western series in the spring. And I have to say, there is so, so much more to Eastwood than just “Unforgiven,” which, of course, was great.
As you may have noticed, the left sidebar of this here website now includes a new version of the GetReligion logo — one that says “podcast.”
Let’s face it, the mainstream press did everything but cue the theme from “Jaws” this weekend, during the initial coverage of the strange news out of Palmdale, Calif. Consider the top of this early New York Times report, which ran under a rather ordinary headline about a “religious group.”
For such a dramatic story, the New York Times headline does not do justice to a recent tragedy in the local news: “Bronx Church Mourns Death of Its Leader.” The pastor, his wife and four congregants from the Bronx were killed when their church van flipped several times.
On the final day of his United Kingdom trip, Pope Benedict XVI formally beatified English theologian and apologist Cardinal John Henry Newman. Let’s look at some of the stories about Newman. NPR’s excellent religion reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty had a piece speculating that Newman was gay. I thought it a completely bizarre approach for the main story the news outlet chose to report on the man.
Time for a dip into my GetReligion folder of guilt, that file into which I put stories that I really want to write about when I finally get a few minutes, somehow, to read them carefully and then write a post.
The news coverage, so far, about the alleged threat of violence against Pope Benedict XVI has been cautious to the max — as it should be.
