{"id":104054,"date":"2013-04-19T10:17:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T14:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=104054"},"modified":"2013-04-19T10:17:51","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T14:17:51","slug":"covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Covering the religion angle on breaking Boston news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yes, this has been a bad week for journalism. And many people are complaining. But it\u2019s also been a great week for journalism. I was one of those folks listening in on the Boston police scanner last night and it was so very difficult to make sense of what was going on (though it was absolutely riveting, thrilling and horrifying).<\/p>\n

Suddenly, in the midst of all the chaos, the New York Times<\/em> published an account of the shootout between suspects and police. It\u2019s since been updated and revised significantly<\/a> so I can\u2019t point to the original story (which is a shame, since I\u2019d love to revisit it), but it\u2019s just a reminder of the importance of skilled reporting in a breaking situation.<\/p>\n

Breaking situations are also when we see problems, including with how religion angles are covered. This morning on Twitter there were reports that CNN had suggested that Islamic extremists never drink. CNN also was suggesting that the suspects were \u201cdevout.\u201d In the case of the former, that\u2019s simply naive or ignorant. In the case of the latter, I\u2019d sure like a lot more information before we characterize the suspects in such a manner.<\/p>\n

Of course, from what we know now, the suspects are Muslim, American residents, and refugees from Chechnya. They also had something of a social media footprint, which could give clues about their interests. There\u2019s a lot of complexity even in that formulation. The best thing to do is to proceed with caution about what we know. Reuters handled it this way in a piece headlined \u201cBoston suspect\u2019s web page venerates Islam, Chechen independence<\/a>\u201c: <\/p>\n

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posted links to Islamic websites and others calling for Chechen independence on what appears to be his page on a Russian language social networking site\u2026<\/p>\n

His \u201cWorld view\u201d is listed as \u201cIslam\u201d and his \u201cPersonal priority\u201d is \u201ccareer and money\u201d.<\/p>\n

He has posted links to videos of fighters in the Syrian civil war and to Islamic web pages with titles like \u201cSalamworld, my religion is Islam\u201d and \u201cThere is no God but Allah, let that ring out in our hearts\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also has links to pages calling for independence for Chechnya, a region of Russia that lost its bid for secession after two wars in the 1990s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The brief article ends with something showing Tsarnaev\u2019s sense of humor as well. Not bad for a quick piece based on limited information.<\/p>\n

Are you seeing religion angles handled informatively and responsibly? Send us the links. Duds? Share those, too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, this has been a bad week for journalism. And many people are complaining. But it\u2019s also been a great week for journalism. I was one of those folks listening in on the Boston police scanner last night and it was so very difficult to make sense of what was going on (though it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,7,3,1,24],"tags":[1408,1409,1410,1404,1407,1406],"class_list":["post-104054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam","category-journalism","category-politics","category-uncategorized","category-world","tag-boston-marathon","tag-breaking-news","tag-chechen-independence","tag-chechnya","tag-dzokhar-tsarnaev","tag-tamerlan-tsarnaev"],"yoast_head":"\nCovering the religion angle on breaking Boston news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, this has been a bad week for journalism. And many people are complaining. But it's also been a great week for journalism. I was one of those folks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Covering the religion angle on breaking Boston news\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yes, this has been a bad week for journalism. And many people are complaining. But it's also been a great week for journalism. I was one of those folks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-19T14:17:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2013\/04\/tamerlan-tsarnaev-dzokhar-300x228.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mollie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mollie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/\",\"name\":\"Covering the religion angle on breaking Boston news\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-19T14:17:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-19T14:17:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/74ed2f03f6e3aa3c3c4c3ce885b10255\"},\"description\":\"Yes, this has been a bad week for journalism. And many people are complaining. But it's also been a great week for journalism. I was one of those folks\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Covering the religion angle on breaking Boston news\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\",\"name\":\"GetReligion\",\"description\":\""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - William Schneider\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/74ed2f03f6e3aa3c3c4c3ce885b10255\",\"name\":\"mollie\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fdd9488c7657bf391bdf276b5c392eb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fdd9488c7657bf391bdf276b5c392eb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mollie\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/author\/mollie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Covering the religion angle on breaking Boston news","description":"Yes, this has been a bad week for journalism. And many people are complaining. But it's also been a great week for journalism. I was one of those folks","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Covering the religion angle on breaking Boston news","og_description":"Yes, this has been a bad week for journalism. And many people are complaining. But it's also been a great week for journalism. I was one of those folks","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/","og_site_name":"GetReligion","article_published_time":"2013-04-19T14:17:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2013\/04\/tamerlan-tsarnaev-dzokhar-300x228.jpg"}],"author":"mollie","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mollie","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/","name":"Covering the religion angle on breaking Boston news","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-04-19T14:17:51+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-19T14:17:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/74ed2f03f6e3aa3c3c4c3ce885b10255"},"description":"Yes, this has been a bad week for journalism. And many people are complaining. But it's also been a great week for journalism. I was one of those folks","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/covering-the-religion-angle-on-breaking-boston-news\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Covering the religion angle on breaking Boston news"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/","name":"GetReligion","description":""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - William Schneider","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/74ed2f03f6e3aa3c3c4c3ce885b10255","name":"mollie","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fdd9488c7657bf391bdf276b5c392eb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fdd9488c7657bf391bdf276b5c392eb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mollie"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/author\/mollie\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}