Last night, I pointed out the Washington Post media writer Erik Wemple’s rather odd attempt to defend mainstream coverage of the Planned Parenthood PR and fundraising campaign of the Komen foundation. One of the things he’d said was that Ross Douthat’s New York Times column critiquing bad media coverage was “bunk” because you could find good coverage, too. Specifically, he pointed out, this Dallas Morning News story (“which carefully laid out both sides of the dispute”). How carefully, you ask? This carefully. Here’s the lede:
The narrow Prop 8 decision
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” â Mark Twain
Ghost in the Brendan voyage
This lengthy Washington Post sports feature about Matt Rutherford’s amazing attempt to sail — solo, in a small boat — all the way around North and South America had me locked up the minute I read that he had named his boat the Saint Brendan.
Kurtz: Of course Komen stories were biased
As you poor GetReligion readers know, I’ve been pounding the beat on media coverage of Planned Parenthood’s campaign against Komen. You can read my earlier posts: “Media discover Planned Parenthood is controversial” (which took issue with how media reports told only half the story about how people feel about Planned Parenthood), “Media genuflect before Church of Planned Parenthood” (which critiqued how they were engaged in advocacy on behalf of Planned Parenthood), and “Planned Parenthood and media thank each other” (which cataloged how they thought they’d done good work in advocating for Planned Parenthood). I also wrote a piece for CNN collecting some of these thoughts: “My Take: On Komen Controversy, Media Told Half The Story.”
Bias and balance in Aussie Catholic news
Anti-catholic bias in the press is not new. But I do wonder if fifteen years of abuse scandals has shifted the framework for reporting on the Roman Catholic Church.The default position in the press is that the Catholic Church is guilty as charged — no matter the charge.
JFK meets Wheaton College (no, not that one)
As you would imagine, the new memoir by former White House intern Mimi Alford about her affair with President John F. Kennedy is causing a lot of buzz, even though the scope of Kennedy’s philandering has long been rumored, documented and then dismissed in Beltway circles.
A vague resurrection
With books like “Heaven is for Real” on the New York Times bestseller list, it’s no wonder reporters might gravitate toward stories of death, resurrection, heaven and everything else that touches the topic. A reader sent us a piece that neglects to mention quite a few details in trying to retell a resurrection-like story.
That missing church-state angle in NYC
The clock is ticking in New York City for the many churches that face eviction under the court ruling that states that churches — unlike other non-profits — cannot rent space in public schools. Why? Because worship in a government space fundamentally and, one must assume, supernaturally, changes the nature of that space. Click here and here to revisit that situation.
Planned Parenthood and media thank each other
Here at GetReligion, we analyze how well the media handle religion news. Last week was not one of those weeks that make me proud to be a journalist.
