It’s time for another season in the National Basketball Association, which is another one of those giant sports stories that GetReligion readers seem to care little or nothing about. Hint, hint. But do I care? No. I’m going to keep writing God-and-sports posts, no matter what. After all, I am a pretty big sports fan and I think that religious issues in sports coverage are interesting and, at times, unique. Why’s that? Well, lots of athletes are religious (think Tim... Read more
So while the rest of you are focused on Halloween, we Lutherans are busy celebrating Reformation Day. To be sure, some churches moved their celebrations to earlier in the month or last Sunday, but my congregation is keeping it real with services at 7:00 PM tonight. You might be surprised how much Lutherans mark the day. Back in my single days, my wonderful Catholic housemate used to let us use her piano while we sang hymns at our annual party.... Read more
In yet another case of liberal bias by GetReligion, tmatt screamed “Boooo!” the other day at a one-sided story praising Halloween evangelism. I chimed in with a comment noting that in my Associated Press days I did a “hell house” story and included both sides — long before GR-style ghostbusting became a ghastly gleam in the Internet’s eye. Since it’s Halloween, I thought I’d highlight a couple of stories reporting on how some Christians deal with the holiday’s pagan roots.... Read more
When I saw this story come in (clicking on a URL from a reader), I immediately thought, “Here we go again.” But the reader was right. This is not another story that simply assumes that yoga is a practice that can be stripped of all specific religious content. That’s the kind of story that, alas, comes up pretty frequently in the mainstream press. Surf around in this GetReligion search file and you’ll see evidence of that syndrome that pretty quick.... Read more
The 25 October 2012 issue of The New Republic carries a story entitled “Thetans and Bowties” that I can’t quite get my head round. By this I do not mean I do not understand what the article says – but I am having a hard time classifying its species. Is this story about the convergence of the Nation of Islam and the Church of Scientology news, news analysis, a feature or a newsy magazine feature? The article has a magazine... Read more
A recent front-page Los Angeles Times story makes the case that reluctant evangelical Christian voters are warming to Mormon Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee. Or, should I say, the story purports to make that case. The headline and deck: Evangelical support grows for Romney Overcoming concerns about Romney’s Mormon faith, conservative white Christians, buoyed by a massive outreach effort, get behind the GOP challenger. Presumably, the writer traveled to Colorado to write this story because it features a Colorado... Read more
A long time ago (in digital terms), back at the beginning of this here weblog, I sat at my desk in West Palm Beach, Fla., listening to the sound of an oncoming hurricane and thinking about a very practical issue: How does one blog about religion news on a daily basis if the power goes out for, let’s say, a week? Well, that happened to me twice back in the fall of 2004. That led me to write about a... Read more
The Associated Press had a huge story this weekend accusing American voters of racism, but a racism that has increased in the last four years. When people were asked if they were racist, they said no, but when a survey that measures racial preferences via tiny pictures and Chinese characters was used, the racism was found. The subhead at USA Today is “Overall, the survey found that by virtue of racial prejudice, Obama could lose 5 percentage points off his... Read more
Last week was not one of the best for the mainstream media. I just wrote a lengthy screed about how awful the coverage, or the lack thereof, was about an Indiana Senate candidate, the administration’s handling of a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists in Libya and a so-called “war on women.” You know which one didn’t receive much coverage from most outlets and which ones did. And you can hear me talk about it on this week’s Crossroads podcast. The... Read more
Truth be told, in our bias for fair, accurate journalism, we at GetReligion probably focus too much on the negative. We point out mistakes in mainstream reporting. We cry out for balance. We complain about the MSM bubble. For once, I want to accentuate the positive. Therefore, please allow me to highlight a Seattle Times story this week as a perfect example of how to write a puff piece. Before I begin, however, I must stress that reporters typically do... Read more
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