Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
If you’re a college football fan, you’re familiar with Cam Newton: He’s the star Auburn quarterback who — for now– leads most Heisman polls. This afternoon, his unbeaten, second-ranked Tigers face the No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide in an Iron Bowl with national title ramifications.
Every now and then, your GetReligionistas whine a bit when mainstream news publications publish stories that are full of religious reference, yet contain almost no facts about religion at all. Yes, I’m still thinking about this one at the moment, care of the Washington Post.
Thanksgiving is all about family traditions. And what could be more traditional than a GetReligion look at a Roman Catholic Womenpriests story? So everyone pull out the blankets and cuddle by the fire as we look through the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s recent entry for the Best Worst Roman Catholic Female Priest story. If you look at the headline — “Newnan woman challenges Catholic church: Diane Dougherty pushes to allow women to be deacons” — you’ll see that there’s no way this is the best worst entry.
Doing a story on abortion doctors must be terribly challenging, since it would be impossible to create a sweeping generalization of religious, political, ethical views and backgrounds. The Toronto Star tackles this challenge in a lengthy piece exploring the dimensions of trying to be an abortion provider. The hook is really fascinating: it begins with a gay doctor, Dr. Evan James, who never wavered in his determination to become an abortion provider.
Here at GetReligion, we respond to the news of the day. Sometimes that means we don’t get a chance to reflect on broader themes. We spent a lot of time discussing how the mainstream media handled the Vatican sex abuse crisis earlier this year. The Ethics and Public Policy Center hosted a gathering of journalists from mainstream secular outlets to reflect on what went right and what went wrong with that coverage.
Late last week, I was visiting the Washington Post newsroom with some of my students and the professionals there were — justifiably — buzzing about a news feature that dominated that day’s front page. It was one of those mood-of-the-nation pieces in which one person’s story is used as a metaphor for the lives of many.
The e-mail came across my computer screen last week. The title of the note from Debra Mason, the highly respected executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association, was cheery enough:
The other day, Bobby Ross Jr. wrote a rather provocative post entitled, “In CAIR of the NYTimes” which was a follow-up post after one of his all-time button-pushing efforts, which ran with the headline, “An Okie asks: Is RNS the new CAIR?”
A few days ago, we looked at a startling story from Thailand where 2,000 dead fetuses from illegal abortion clinics were found at a Buddhist temple. The story indicated that monks were not aware of what was taking place, but there were inevitable implications for the temple.
