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It was another Roe v. Wade anniversary and, as usual, the protestors on both sides of the debate were out in force on the grounds of the Colorado state Capitol. Both sides, of course, had their designated spokespersons who were available to talk to the press. This happened year after year.
During one of my newspaper internships, I helped compile a list of data from houses of worship around the city for a church directory. You would not believe the number of bizarrely awful websites we came across, from the flashy purple and gold to the blogspot templates people still use.
The Denver Post‘s Eric Gorski hasn’t been exclusively on the Godbeat for a while. So I was quite happy to see him dip back into religion reporting for his piece on the Church of Scientology’s grand-opening celebration in Denver. We’re told that the celebration filled a city block downtown with balloons, confetti and cheering throngs.
One of the things that your GetReligionistas keep saying — to the point of aggravating many readers — is that it is often possible for journalists to spot and define a religion ghost quite easily, using relatively few lines of type in this post-USA Today journalistic world in which we live.
Read the lede to this Minneapolis Star-Tribune story, and tell me if it doesn’t make your head spin:
As regular GetReligion readers will know, I have — for quite some time now — curious about what the word “Islamist” means when it is used in mainstream news coverage of the Islam, either in lands that are majority Muslim or those that are not. In other words, does “Islamist” mean one thing in Cairo and another thing in Detroit?
I’m out of the country right now visiting my in-laws in Mexico. They don’t have wifi! So my posting may be a bit lighter the next few weeks as I cobble together trips in search of internet.
An exclusive is a wonderful thing. Being first out of the block with an exciting and timely news story is a professional triumph for a reporter — and it also makes you feel great! I imaging that is how the two reporters at the Observer — the Sunday edition of the Guardian — felt on Saturday night as they saw their story on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s latest attacks on the government of Prime Minister David Cameron make it to page 1 — and above the fold too!
You may need to sit down. It’s time for GetReligion to offer a positive (for the most part) take on a New York Times report about Catholicism and, in particular, the troubled Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
