It just seems like yesterday that I was discussing the smear job on NPR reporter (and fellow Pagan) Margot Adler by the “liberal media bias” watchdogs at NewsBusters.

“It seems that Graham’s biggest problem with Adler is that she isn’t a conservative Christian, that an atheist was hanging around when she recorded the report, and that she didn’t talk to some conservative Christians. Oh, and she didn’t find a (Christian or conservative) protester to talk to in a completely unrelated story.”

It seems that the folks at Fox News loved that dish so much they asked for seconds!

“A pagan priestess runs into the president of the atheists in a phone booth in New York. No, it’s not a joke — it’s the start of a controversial report from National Public Radio — and your tax dollars may have paid for it. New York City officials this fall launched an art project called “Public Prayer Booth” … To cover the story, NPR sent reporter Margot Adler, a Wiccan priestess and author of two books on paganism. Lo and behold, she happened upon the president of the New York City Atheists, Ken Bronstein, an outspoken opponent of public religious displays.”

Again, note the emphasis on Adler’s religion, as if being a Pagan was a strike against her. Luckily, it seems the NPR spokesperson has got Adler’s back.

“There’s no bias in this story and to imply that there is because of a reporter’s religious beliefs is absurd,” said Anna Christopher, an NPR spokeswoman. “[Adler] spoke with several different people with several different viewpoints on the booth.”

Christopher also debunked the notion that NPR operates “on the government dime”.

“Less than two percent [of NPR's budget] comes from competitive grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts,”

As for Adler running into the president of the New York City Atheists, it seems far more likely in New York where the “unaffiliated” outnumber the “evangelicals” by 5%. But I suppose the notion of coincidence is unthinkable for Fox News, especially when it involves a prominent Pagan running into a prominent atheist. Maybe they would have accepted it if a Catholic reporter ran into an evangelical pastor? Imagine that happening on the “government dime”!

The Fox affiliate in Chicago has done a short segment on the Asatru faith. The result ends up saying a lot about how journalists often decide what the story is going to be before they do the reporting.

“Ancient Viking Religion Finds New Worshipers – Including White Supremacists. Thousands of followers claim Asatru is a real religion. They swear it’s changed their lives for the better. But it’s also a faith that’s been linked to violence and hate crimes. Mark Saxenmeyer shows us just who’s worshipping ‘the race religion.”

That blurb and the accompanying video segment show the inherent bias held by the reporter and his editors. Asatru is defined as “race religion” even though that isn’t a universally held view within Asatru, and white supremacy takes up fully half of the report even though such movements are only found at the extreme fringes of the faith (and, as the report concedes, are denounced by all the major Asatru organizations).

You can’t have a “fair and balanced” view of a faith when you cut from an interview with a local Asatruar to newsreel footage of marching Nazis. In fact the report states that Nazis practiced a “variation” of Asatru, even though such a claim is completely anachronistic and hugely contentious. Perhaps the reporter wanted to do a sensationalist piece about new racist movements and was disappointed to discover that they were appropriating and distorting a larger faith grouping.

This may seem like a small thing, but it is news stories like this that can directly lead to growing FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) concerning Asatru and Germanic Heathenry. It can lead to innocent symbols being banned as “offensive”, and can cause problems for Heathens if a hysterical co-worker or family member suddenly thinks they may be a white supremacist. There is a way to responsibly report on racist movements that appropriate modern Pagan symbols, but conflating these small and isolated groups with our mainstream is irresponsible.

ADDENDUM: For a more positive story involving Asatru, The Northern Path reports on a Asatru man who helped save the life of a woman who had crashed her car.

“Siple, who was walking his Airedale terrier Dusty when he found Scott lying next to her car on the beach, said he was praying to Njord, the god of the sea, while awaiting rescuers. “I was just praying to him, ‘hold the tide back a little bit longer so we can get Diane out of here,’” Siple said Friday.”

Expect to hear more from Siple, he has been approached by The Today Show and Dateline.