Darn you, paywall. Earlier this month, Time magazine published a 3,500-word cover story on what it dubbed “The Latino Reformation.” But the full text of the article is available online only to subscribers. As a journalist who wants to see this industry survive, I’m OK with that. But it makes a critique in this kind of format a little awkward since most of you can’t access the full story. For those who do subscribe to Time and read the piece,... Read more
Last week, tmatt reflected on how the above reading at Margaret Thatcher’s funeral was being portrayed by some in the media. It seems some had a rather narrow and inaccurate interpretation of the text. But I wanted to mention a couple of funny corrections affiliated with that text. People kept sending us emails about this and they finally added up. So here’s Foreign Policy: After being carried through the streets of London in a flag-draped coffin aboard a gun carriage,... Read more
Catholics here in America have a very intense and interesting relationship with the mainstream press. First of all, there are just so many of them and so many different kinds — with active and inactive, believing and non-believing being the simple points of reference. Second, their sheer numbers make it impossible to ignore Catholics when it comes to the raw, swing-vote data so often used when talking (journalists may want to cross themselves here) POLITICS. Third, there are so many... Read more
Editor’s note: This happens now and then, every two or three years. Two GetReligion writers jumped on the same news subject and then proceeded to write and post at precisely the same time. What are the odds? In this case, we will simply let the two posts stand as written. Yes, your GetReligionistas — the Orthodox guy in particular — have received more than a few emails seeking our take on the media coverage of the kidnapping of two Orthodox... Read more
Horrible news out of Syria, where two Orthodox bishops were kidnapped. There hasn’t been enough coverage of this kidnapping and to say the coverage that’s out there is weak is an understatement. Take this story from Reuters (but don’t believe it, as I’ll explain later): Two kidnapped Syrian bishops freed: church official Kidnappers freed two Syrian bishops on Tuesday who had been abducted in the northern city of Aleppo, a church official said, but the identities of their kidnappers remained... Read more
There is nothing new about journalists arguing about the loaded language that surrounds our public debates about abortion. For starters, there is the whole “pro-choice” vs. “anti-abortion” thing and all of the years in which editors in so many mainstream newsrooms granted one side of the debate it’s positive, vague, self-chosen label while slapping a label on the other side that was, for many, too negative and too narrow. Most of all, only one side of the debate had to... Read more
Please excuse this brief reference to scripture: “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” — Matt: 12:31-32 Is there an unforgivable sin in politics? American... Read more
The latest headlines give some indication of where the Boston bombing story is going. From the New York Times, for instance: Bombing Suspect Cites Islamic Extremist Beliefs as Motive A more informative article from the Associated Press is headlined: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Influenced By Mysterious Muslim Radical, Turned Towards Fundamentalism Headlined in the Huffington Post, I hasten to add, since the “F” word violates the AP Stylebook. It begins: In the years before the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev fell under... Read more
… (T)he best persuaded of himself, so cramm’d, as he thinks, with excellencies that it is his grounds of faith that all that look on him love him. Twelfth Night, 2.3.150-152 (1623) The counterrevolution has begun. The press is pushing back against its critics over the Kermit Gosnell affair. Stung by the criticisms and the hypocrisies detailed by Mollie Hemingway on this website, Kirsten Powers at USA Today and other outlets, some have begun reporting on the murder trial of... Read more
Here’s an interesting and timely religion news story at the Huffington Post: “Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Suspected Boston Bomber, May Not Get Islamic Funeral From Wary Muslims.” Assuming you’re interested in the topic, finds an interesting and informative angle and provides many details about Muslim burial and funeral rites. Is anyone else finding the general coverage of this Boston bombing frustrating? I really wish reporters would remember to source everything better. I keep seeing details presented as statements of fact only to... Read more
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