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To tell you the truth, I have always thought that it is very easy for first-person journalism — especially arts and entertainment criticism — to slip into vague, self-centered mush.
Ad fontes — to the sources — is a helpful phrase to keep in mind when reading press reports about church leaders. It is always useful to set what is reported to have been said by the pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other leading clerics against the text of their address. Sometimes the two do not agree.
At the beginning of last month, tmatt highlighted the main framing device in the news and commentary in the battle over the Obama Administration’s mandate requiring employers to provide coverage for abortifacients, sterilization and contraception even if they have religious objections:
One of the terms that journalists hear during many continuing education sessions at the Poynter Institute down in Florida is “stakeholder.” Basically, a stakeholder is someone whose life will be directly affected by the accuracy and fairness of a story.
After Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s election in 2010, questions emerged concerning the religious background of the Tea Party favorite with Cuban-American roots.
We’ve had a few readers send in links to coverage of a First Amendment-related case out of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. It’s a sad story that goes back to a 2011 Halloween parade. A small group of atheists marched in the parade, dressed as a Zombie Pope and a Zombie Muhammad. This outraged one Muslim father who attended the parade with his wife and son.
Thanks to technological advances, we have all sorts of ways to try to bring life into this world and to prevent life from going out of this world.
Every now and then, GetReligion readers send us the URLs for stories that they assume we will dislike — often because of the actual religious content of these pieces.
