How NOT to cover the ruling in the Hobby Lobby case

Hey @GetReligion, read the fear-filled, one-sided piece in @Forbes re: what will happen if @HobbyLobbyStore prevails: http://t.co/O47OaXrg6m

— Matt Branaugh (@MattBranaugh) June 25, 2014

@MattBranaugh Are you suggesting there is more than one side to this story? 🙂

— GetReligion (@GetReligion) June 25, 2014

@GetReligion Surprising, I know. According to this piece, everyone already agrees the government is right and Hobby Lobby is wrong.

— Matt Branaugh (@MattBranaugh) June 25, 2014

With the U.S. Supreme Court’s highly anticipated ruling in the Hobby Lobby case expected as soon as today, Forbes offers a perfect example of how not to cover the decision.

And yes, I realize it’s more than the Hobby Lobby case (thank you, tmatt).

For anyone not familiar with the background or what’s at stake, ReligionLink provided this informative primer back in March that’s still relevant.

As Religion News Service puts it:

Technically,  it’s Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, a showdown over the Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage mandate. The core legal question is whether a private company can have religious rights.

But to the general public, this is seen as a showdown between employers — the evangelical Green family behind Hobby Lobby and the Mennonite Hahn family that owns the Conestoga cabinet company — and the employees’ personal reproductive choices under their insurance.

But back to Forbes. 

Here’s the headline atop that organization’s one-sided account:

What To Expect If Hobby Lobby Wins Religious Freedom Case

Who does Forbes quote? Three sources — all critics of Hobby Lobby’s position. Apparently, all the “experts” are concerned:

But there’s far more at stake than the rights of women workers to contraception access, according to experts who’ve studied this case and its precedents.

“If the Supreme Court gives corporations rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, it could be a sea change,” said Marci Hamilton, constitutional law expert and author of newly released book God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty.

“Hobby Lobby is discriminating against employees who don’t share their faith. This is another step towards filling the workplace with coreligionists.”

Greg Scott is vice president of media communications for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Conestoga Wood Specialties. His response to the Forbes story, shared with GetReligion:

When all of the sources represent the furthest extreme on one side of an issue, you’re not likely to get anything but the hysteria represented by that piece. The sources are uniformly hostile to the constitutionally protected free exercise of faith and completely distort what constitutes unlawful discrimination. The case has nothing to do with whether anyone has “access” to potentially abortion-inducing drugs and contraception.

Planned Parenthood, a chief opponent of the Hahn and Green families’ religious freedom, itself claims that 99 percent of women have used these products. So access to these drugs is self-evidently not a problem. The problem is the mandate, which forces these family businesses to subsidize objectionable drugs and treatments under the threat of massive fines enforced by the IRS. The only “access” at stake in this case is the families’ access to their religious freedom to opt out of participating in someone else’s decision to purchase embryo-destroying drugs.

There you have it: another side of the story. Too bad Forbes didn’t choose to pursue it.

If the ruling happens this morning, follow the comments section on this post for updates. And by all means, share any links to particularly excellent or egregious news coverage.

Update:

#Scotus done releasing opinions for the day. Hobby Lobby decision will be Monday.

— Jaweed Kaleem (@jaweedkaleem) June 26, 2014