In what Mother Jones called “the best journalism-job want ad ever,” a Sarasota Herald-Tribune editor pitched an investigative reporter job by writing (language warning):
Koran conflagration, redux
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Pod people: Repent! If God will listen, saith Phelps
This is the last that you will hear from me for some time, I hope and pray, about the Westboro Baptist Church crew. Dear God in heaven, make it so.
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BYU fans love New Orleans (really)
With Brigham Young University still alive in March Madness, the news ripples continue to expand from the earlier coverage of the suspension of hoops star Brandon Davies for violating the school’s moral code. It isn’t surprising, in other words, that editors still have Mormon moral dilemmas on their minds.
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D-I-V-O-R-C-E in the boonies
In the early 2000s, in my time as religion editor of The Oklahoman, Oklahoma’s then-Gov. Frank Keating always made for an interesting interview.
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Go for hajj ... immediately
The Washington Post has a provocative story about the Justice Department suing a Chicago school district for outright religious discrimination. The reporter does a great job of writing the piece in a thorough and impartial manner. The facts are stated, multiple viewpoints are offered, and the result is a very interesting piece. Here’s how it begins:
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Christians who pole dance
One of the most tired religion angles can be found in stories with the following formula: Lots of people are [doing x], Christians put their own spin by [creating y], and people are responding by [saying z]. We see this with stories like using Twitter in church or a Christian twist on Yoga.
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This Westboro voice sounds strangely familiar
The Westboro Baptist Church saga has always intrigued and appalled me, in large part because of my background in church-state studies and First Amendment rights. I am also intrigued with people who are so radical that they defy easy description. As the old saying goes, sometimes people go so far to the right that they end up on the left (and vice versa).
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Mean Girls take on Chuck Colson
Ever since the movie Mean Girls came out, I can’t help but think of the Washington Post “Style” section as the “Mean Girls” section. I sort of imagine its copy editors in the same way Lindsay Lohan’s character describes the animal world (see the movie clip). Now, we live in an era where such snark is almost certainly popular, but it really doesn’t set well with me — especially when applied to serious news topics.
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What hath the LAT wrought
We mentioned last week that people were trying to make sense of the tragedy in Japan. I noted that a few celebrities did a very bad job blaming the Japanese for angering God; the specific ESPN story I discussed broached but did not address the theodicy question.
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