Religion-beat reporters (and columnists) get lots of strange press releases and letters from folks trying to get their pet issues covered.
My all-time favorite, during my Denver years, was a 50-page (at least) handwritten treatise on why superstar Barbara Streisand was the Antichrist. That created a steady stream of amused editors to my desk. I should have had the courage to write about it.
Most press releases are written by people who have absolutely no idea what newsrooms consider to be news or even what topics the reporter/columnist targeted with the release has written about in the past.
Christmas is a HUGE time for religion-beat press releases. This is logical because some newsrooms — those without religion-beat pros, ironically — struggle to find holiday story angles, year after year after year.
This year, I received one release that made me laugh out loud, in a good way. It came from a legal think tank that has made lots of news, in recent decades, with successful arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court. I have, for a decade-plus, received variations on this release from The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, but this one (#GASP) really should have received some coverage.
It was about this year’s winner of the “Ebenezer Award,” saluting the “most outrageous and scandalous offenders of the Christmas and Hanukkah season.” This year’s winner: The government powers that be in King County, Washington. (Click here for previous winners.)
Here’s some of the press-release background:
King County's "Workforce Equity Manager" for the Department of Human Resources, Gloria Ngezaho, recently authored and issued a memo, titled "Guidelines for Holiday Decorations for King County Employees," where she states that workers may not "appear to support any particular religion" and bans them from displaying religious symbols in any "virtual workspace." …
King's County has refused to back down on their outlandish efforts to squash the religious expression of their employees during one of the most sacred times of the year for people of faith.
Did this story receive any mainstream press coverage?
What do you think?
As you would expect, this was a “conservative news” story run by conservative and religious news organizations, especially — I would imagine — after receiving “coverage” from Fox News, as in a piece that was clearly labeled “opinion.”
The origins of this press release was, logically enough, in an online text version of a local talk-radio riff. The headline: “King County goes to war with Christmas, Hanukkah decorations.” Here’s a sample:
You can celebrate LGBT Pride and wear a Black Lives Matter button throughout your day as a King County employee. But you better not show a nativity set or menorah on your digital workspace or your home office.
King County Human Resources warned employees not to decorate their workspaces with overtly Christmas or Hanukkah decorations. They fear decorations may offend employees.
Gloria Ngezaho, Workforce Equity Manager for the Department of Human Resources, authored a memo titled “Guidelines for Holiday Decorations for King County Employees” to outline expectations. It says the county “remains committed to honoring the diversity in its workforce and is fortunate to have employees from many diverse backgrounds.”
Just don’t go too far.
“Before adding any decorations to your workspace (including your virtual workspace), consider the likely effect of such decorations on all of the employees in and outside your work group,” reads the memo obtained by the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH by a county staffer who found it posted internally last week.
The county has employees so hostile to religious symbols (real or perceived), it focuses warnings primarily on virtual backgrounds.
Valid news or mere conservative clickbait?
It certainly is the latter. However, this annual Becket could be a hook for a totally valid riff on Christmas Wars tensions in the workplace. Ponder this question: What can employers (government agencies, especially) require employees to affirm with decorations? What topics are totally off limits, and why?
Then again, maybe this pushed a button for me since I once got in “trouble” for hanging this edgy poster on the side of my Rocky Mountain News (#RIP) desk, since it was an illustration that was used with one of my columns.
Fair game?
FIRST IMAGE: Screenshot from the greatest adaption, ever, of “A Christmas Carol.”