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Another National Football League weekend, another chance to put Tim Tebow’s name into digital print — making glad the hearts of Patheos.com leaders who live day after day in the world of Google and other search engines.
In this weekâs podcast Issues Etc. host Todd Wilkin and I discussed two of my recent GetReligion stories: “Charlie Hebdoâs Muhammad Cartoon Crassness” and “Foggy Bottomâs âpantywaist protocol pussy-footersâ.” Starting with the press coverage on the attacks on the U.S. embassy in Cairo and consulate in Benghazi, the articles (and our discussion) moved on to the vexed question of how the Western media reports on blasphemy in an Islamic context.
I realize that, as a member of an Antiochian Orthodox Christian parish, my concerns about events in Damascus, Syria, are going to focus on religion more than those of the average news consumer. After all, the Patriarchate of Antioch is located in Damascus, on the “street called Straight.” (Acts 9:11)
On Thursday, I highlighted a fine piece of journalism produced by The Associated Press’ filet mignon department â where reporter chefs with unlimited time, space and resources whip up the kind of delectable stories that win big prizes.
In July, we looked at some of the media coverage of a priest who was removed from his parish by Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville, Illinois. He wasn’t just removed from his parish. Braxton also removed his faculties. There were some problems with the previous story dealing with how those faculties were characterized and what, exactly, were his violations. We knew that he was improvising portions of the mass but we didn’t get specifics.
Back in April, I weighed in on a claim that my former employer, The Associated Press, is “desperately seeking Pulitzers” and relaxing its news standards.
Never a dull moment on the religion news beat. And the latest clash is a full-on battle over blasphemy laws. There’s been a fair amount of coverage. Here’s a Washington Post story headlined “Egyptâs President Morsi tells U.N.: Insults to Muhammad âunacceptableâ.” One thing I liked about the piece was how it gave three full paragraphs of quotes to substantiate this, the fourth paragraph:
If people have long had trouble defining the word “evangelical” — the Rev. Billy Graham once told me he had no idea what the word meant — it only made matters worse when the principalities and powers of Christian publishing started adding the word “emerging” or perhaps “emergent” in front of the already vague “evangelical.”
During the political conventions a few weeks ago, we commented on some disparate coverage of pro-life Democrats and pro-life Republicans. Let’s revisit one aspect of that.
