Newspaper reporter critiqued by GetReligion fires back

May 2, 2014 by

.@TipsForJesus still leaves $$$, so for #Easter, we asked ethicists – is it moral? http://t.co/Nmvb0cyEoF pic.twitter.com/nhAZPrBsF2 — Megan Finnerty (@MeganMFinnerty) April 17, 2014 First off, my apologies for that click bait. Megan Finnerty, a Page 1 reporter for the Arizona Republic, didn’t really fire back at my recent negative review of her pre-Easter story on “Tips [Read More…]

Filed Under: Godbeat, Journalism, Pop Culture, Religion, Social Issues Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What would Jesus tip? Be sure to ask … secular ethicists!?

April 18, 2014 by

.@TipsForJesus still leaves $$$, so for #Easter, we asked ethicists – is it moral? http://t.co/Nmvb0cyEoF pic.twitter.com/nhAZPrBsF2 — Megan Finnerty (@MeganMFinnerty) April 17, 2014   Just in time for Easter, The Arizona Republic decided to write about #TipsforJesus. As the Page 1 reporter who wrote the story put it on Twitter, “@TipsforJesus still leaves $$$, so for [Read More…]

Filed Under: Business & Economy, Journalism, People, Pop Culture, Religion, Social Issues Tagged With: , , , , ,

Breaking news (again): Bible Belt divorce rates high

January 20, 2014 by

News travels fast. Sometimes. In 1999, The Associated Press reported on Bible Belt states battling the highest divorce rates in the nation. As religion editor of The Oklahoman in 2002, I wrote a series of stories on Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating’s effort to reduce my home state’s No. 2-in-the-nation divorce rate. Nearly a decade later, CNN became the latest to [Read More…]

Filed Under: Evangelicals, Journalism, Marriage & family, Religion, Social Issues Tagged With: , , , , ,

Strangely faith-free story about ministry to feed the poor

July 11, 2013 by

For the past two decades, I have spent quite a bit of time driving the back roads of the Southern Highlands, which is one of the many names that locals use to describe the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. One of my very favorite East Tennessee roads runs from the back [Read More…]

Filed Under: Evangelicals, Journalism, Marriage & family, People, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

That’s one very, very poor headline about the pope

May 21, 2013 by

As I have stressed many times here at GetReligion, it’s important for readers to understand that reporters rarely write the headlines that accompany their stories. Editors and specialists at copy desks write the headlines. It’s tough work, and I say that as someone who did that job for several years early in my career. A [Read More…]

Filed Under: Catholicism, Journalism, People, Religion, World, World Religions Tagged With: , , ,

Who’s feeding the starving people?

December 6, 2012 by

If you’re familiar with USA Today, you know that the front page generally features a few short, newsy pieces and a longer “cover story” that goes in depth and jumps inside the newspaper. Wednesday’s big story focused on the poor still struggling to recover in an Ohio county despite some overall positive signs on the economic [Read More…]

Filed Under: Business & Economy, Journalism, Religion, Social Issues Tagged With: , , , ,

Shock: Bishops decide to defend Catholic tradition!

November 14, 2012 by

OK, let’s deal with some basic questions about Catholic bishops and politics. In terms of basic journalism language, when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released pastoral documents about, oh, nuclear weapons, were these statements doctrinal or merely political? When the bishops speak out on America’s actions abroad, let’s say in Iraq or the Middle [Read More…]

Filed Under: Catholicism, Journalism, Marriage & family, Politics, Same-sex marriage, Social Issues Tagged With: , , , , , , ,