Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Back in March, we did a couple of posts — here and here — on news coverage of a Catholic high school in New Orleans embroiled in controversy over corporal punishment and deeper issues.
CNN.com features a story about popular phrases that are wrongly attributed to the Bible. At the time I’m writing this, it has 111 pages of comments. That’s like 6,200 comments. And to think that editors sometimes wonder if religion stories have enough appeal.
In a way, it just isn’t fair to criticize the reporters and editors who work in small and even midsized newspapers. They often are forced, by the facts on the ground, to be journalistic jacks of all trades to a degree that is often staggering. It is rare to have experienced people working on specialty beats (except, of course, for stories involving religion — oh, sorry, I meant to say sports).
We at GetReligion have had a few stories about the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of problems at the famed Crystal Cathedral since the church filed for bankruptcy.
I love all most of our reader submissions, but the other day we received one that sounded pretty surprising. It comes from Hasan Hakeem, a member of the Ahmadiyya Community and the Chaplain of the Kenosha County Jail in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I’ll go head and just quote it:
As spring turns to summer, it’s the time for shaved-ice snow cones, cool dips in the swimming pool, hot nights at the ballpark … and steamy legal battles over whether prayer is allowed at high school graduation ceremonies.
Another day, another mainstream news report on the Womenpriests movement that seems to have been written with the assumptions that (a) people are Roman Catholics if they say they are Roman Catholics (as opposed to being believers who are in sacramental Communion with the Church of Rome) and (b) that the Church or Rome is, or should be, operating on organizational principles that are much looser than, say, the Church of England.
So we’re at the confession stage of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sex scandal. For those who haven’t been following along, I’ll try to give a quick recap.
Despite my best intentions to avoid the Internet last week, news of Sarah Palin’s bus tour and her Star of David pendant still somehow seeped into my vacation. Speculation over the 2012 presidential candidates takes up much of the media’s excitement as you can imagine reporters preparing to either flock to Palin’s campaign or write the campaign obits.
