When it comes to the nuts and bolts of journalism, the task that terrifies my students the most is attempting to paraphrase the complicated words of experts into prose that can be understood by the proverbial average American sitting at his or her breakfast table with a cup of coffee. This is especially hard when the journalist in question knows little or nothing about the complicated matters being discussed by said expert. Things get even trickier when the expert is... Read more
NBC has resurrected the “Jesus Rifles” story of 2010, reporting that some three years after the Pentagon began removing a “Bible code” stamped on rifle sights manufactured by Michigan company Trijicon, the job of erasing the Scripture references remains unfinished. The article entitled “No fix for ‘Jesus rifles’ deploying to Afghanistan” is not what one would call balanced. It is written with a high degree of moral dudgeon and a breathless enthusiasm not merited by the underlying story. And, it... Read more
Late one night last week, while I was attending a journalism conference in Kiev, I plunked myself down in the wifi zone in the hotel lobby and pounded out a quick post about at topic that your GetReligionistas have been discussing ever since the cyber-doors opened at this here weblog — the fact that hardly anyone knows what the word “evangelical” means. For me, personally, one of the touchstone moments in this debate was the day I spent with the... Read more
When I first read that journalist Austin Tice had gone missing from Syria after August 11, I was worried about how the story would play out. The good news is that we have an update and he appears to be alive. But the plot really thickens from there. Tice has been captured but it’s unclear by whom. A couple of days ago, a video clip appeared that showed Tice being forced to march in rugged terrain and recite a Muslim... Read more
Things that go together in Texas: Chicken-fried steak and gravy. Cowboy hats and boots. Church and state … oh, wait. The Lone Star State never seems to lack for constitutional clashes. In my time with The Associated Press in Dallas, I wrote about clashes over candy canes at a school and sermons at a senior center. A lawsuit over a prayer at a graduation ceremony made news last year. And those are just a few examples of many. The latest headline... Read more
What’s the world coming from if you can’t cater to Saudia Arabian consumers by airbrushing all women out of pictures in your catalog? Swedish furniture giant IKEA did that and they’re hearing it from angry women and human rights activists. Women: can’t have them in your fancy catalog, can’t airbrush them out of existence. Anyway, the Wall Street Journal had a big piece in its business section on the brouhaha: Representatives for Swedish furniture giant IKEA on Monday apologized for... Read more
I love a good fashion story, especially one that taps into religion behind the inspiration for the different styles. The Associated Press recently assessed the state of style among evangelicals in Brazil, no small story for the potentially steamy topic. Strolling down the main shopping drag in this working-class Rio de Janeiro suburb, it’s not the second-skin dresses in shocking pink spandex that catch the eye or even the strapless tops with strategically placed peekaboo paneling. The newest look can... Read more
Last week we looked at the story about Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid saying Mitt Romney was a bad Mormon. A reporter asked me if Mormons think Harry Reid is a bad Mormon. I’m not Mormon but I asked a few friends who are and even the ones who really loathe his politics were dismissive of the question. One told me that she’d worshiped in Reid’s ward and that nobody seemed to make a big deal about it. And so... Read more
It’s a simple thing, really. One of the mantras of GetReligion is that journalists should give people of faith the opportunity to explain — in their own words — what they believe. In a recent trend piece on Unitarian Universalists, Godbeat pro Bob Smietana of The Tennessean in Nashville did a nice job of that, and I wanted to make note of it. The top of Smietana’s 1,200-word news-feature: For Nathan De Lee, going to church as a kid was... Read more
Another National Football League weekend, another chance to put Tim Tebow’s name into digital print — making glad the hearts of Patheos.com leaders who live day after day in the world of Google and other search engines. There is no breaking news about Tebow, at least not that I know of, but I remain fascinated with the fact that the media is so interested in all things Tebow, except for the fact that most journalists don’t seem to be interested... Read more
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