The most important story this week — do the math — has been the reaction to Rep. Todd Akin’s comments to an interviewer about what he called “legitimate rape.” While people have focused on Akin, it might be worth taking a closer look at the reporter who asked Akin the question about abortion and rape. It came during an appearance on The Jaco Report, hosted by veteran journalist Charles Jaco.
Reporters pretend they're confused about rape
Earlier today, I highlighted a couple of examples of how the media suffer from some serious blind spots when it comes to coverage of the hot-button topic of abortion. I noted that the struggles of pro-life Democrats to have their existence simply acknowledged by their party receive very little, if any, mainstream media coverage. Conversely, the pro-life platform of the Republican Party is big media story.
Akin deluge highlights media struggles with abortion coverage
Will @getreligion cover Todd Akin’s #legitimaterape comments & the conservative #Christian reax? Would grab new @Patheos readers, too.
Endangered species: abstinent New Yorkers
On this week’s episode of Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom,” we’ll take you inside the world of an endangered species: young humans “living the abstinent lifestyle in New York.”
Got news? Bavarian rabbi in legal trouble for WHAT?!
With GetReligion’s move to the Patheos universe, it’s highly likely that this here weblog has lots of new readers. As a result, some of the language that we use over and over may sound a bit strange, for people who have not been around for our whole eight-year journey.
Mormon Mitt Romney goes to church — with reporters!
Mitt Romney’s surprising decision to allow reporters to follow him into church Sunday drew a slew of major mainstream media coverage.
Where have all the foreign correspondents gone?
âTruth is true only within a certain period of time,â observed a spokesman for the Burma’s military junta in the aftermath of that countryâs 1988 pro-democracy uprising, reported Emma Larkin in her 2004 political travelogue-cum-biography âFinding George Orwell in Burmaâ. âWhat was truth once may no longer be truth after many months or years.â
Catholic priest was 'assisting' in a gay wedding?
What we have here, in this short New York Times wedding announcement, is a dangerously vague and terribly loaded word — “assisting” — being used in a liturgical context of some kind. It’s crucial that the word “assisting” is being used in a way that directly connects it with another controversial word in this day and age — “married.”
The Economist chides Catholic Church on its finances
When a story uses extra adjectives or adverbs to pretty up a story, you know something might be fishy. If the information, data and narrative can’t speak for themselves, it’s worth reexamining the piece more closely.
