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At this point, I think most journalists have reached the point that they know that Anders Behring Breivik (a) has self-identified as a “Christian,” (b) yet he also made it clear that he is not a Christian believer, in terms of beliefs and practice and (c) that it is bizarre to call him a “fundamentalist,” in any historic sense of the word.
Yesterday morning Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten asked readers an ethical question based on a true story — should a reporter ever smoke pot with a source? The question had a few details for readers to consider. The reporter didn’t smoke pot currently but had in his past, he was having trouble connecting with the source who was offering the pot and the sharing of the drug would help build up that trust. And, importantly, the Post has a policy that reporters should never do anything illegal while on the job.
Even better, stories about people who hit rock bottom and find their way out of the pit appeal to me.
Please grant me a moment to help readers flash back to a few recent GetReligion posts focusing on mainstream news media coverage of the Womenpriests movement. It focused on an event in Baltimore, a public rite in which four women were hailed as Roman Catholic priests.
Back in May, a Hasidic newspaper in Brooklyn airbrushed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Counterterrorism Director Audrey Tomason out of that photo of a group of White House insiders watching the Osama bin Laden raid. And people freaked out about it. It caused quite the kerfuffle for the paper, Di Tzitung.
Stop the presses. A pastor has prayed for his “smokin’ hot wife.” Truly this is a story made for YouTube, Twitter, blogs, Google+, Facebook, you name it.
EDITOR’S NOTE: GetReligion readers may not know the byline of Arne H. Fjeldstad, unless they have clicked through to the Media Project website on our left sidebar.
The initial reports that attempted to paint terrorist Anders Behring Breivik as some type of Christian fundamentalist have fizzled out as reporters have gotten access to his actual manifesto explaining (such as he is able) his actions last week.
Presidential primary season is approaching, of course, which means that it’s time for reporters to start dancing around the Mormon issues that will be swirling around Mitt Romney.
