{"id":117518,"date":"2014-02-08T14:59:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-08T19:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=117518"},"modified":"2014-02-08T15:10:24","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T20:10:24","slug":"obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/02\/obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama erases the ‘scare quotes’ around religious freedom?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

http:\/\/youtu.be\/6ldS6aOqslA<\/a>\n<\/p>

In recent years, there has been quite a bit of discussion at GetReligion about the ways in which mainstream journalists use \u201cscare quotes\u201d as a way to suggest which causes they see as questionable, as opposed to social, political, cultural or religious causes that they believe are serious concerns.<\/p>\n

Consider, for example, the terms \u201creligious liberty\u201d \u2014 a very common term in First Amendment law and studies \u2014 and \u201creligious freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may recall that Washington Post<\/em> headline not that long ago that ran above a relevant Religion News Service piece<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Activists gather to plot defense of \u2018religious liberty\u2019<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then the lede went with alternative language, yet kept the scare quotes:<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014<\/strong> U.S. Catholic bishops have used the Obama administration\u2019s contraception mandate as Exhibit A in their high-stakes defense of \u201creligious freedom.\u201d But it\u2019s not just the bishops who are fuming, and it\u2019s not only over contraception.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then the quote marks were gone in the very next paragraph:<\/p>\n

Like-minded religionists of several denominations \u2014 including Southern Baptist leader Richard Land and Baltimore Archbishop William Lori \u2014 gathered in Washington \u2026 to organize a response to what they see as the sorry state of religious freedom in America today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fascinating.<\/p>\n

Now, it does appear that journalists may be rethinking their use of \u201creligious freedom\u201d square quotes \u2014 period.<\/p>\n

After all, a quick search of the coverage of President Barack Obama\u2019s important speech on this topic at this week\u2019s National Prayer Breakfast reveals a stunning lack of scare quotes around the term \u2014 when it is used by the president in discussions of events and trends OUTSIDE<\/em> the United States.<\/p>\n

Once again, the editors at The Washington Post<\/em> went with a wire story<\/a> from the experienced Godbeat pros at Religion News Service. In this case, as opposed to the earlier coverage of the Health and Human Services mandate, the headline punctuation looked like this:<\/p>\n

Obama highlights religious freedom in National Prayer Breakfast speech<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this was followed with some very straightforward language:<\/p>\n

Facing criticism that he does not give religious freedom enough attention, President Obama devoted most of his National Prayer Breakfast address to the issue, naming people imprisoned for their beliefs and calling out specific nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that each of us is \u2018wonderfully made\u2019 in the image of God,\u201d Obama said. \u201cWe therefore believe in the inherent dignity of every human being \u2014 dignity that no earthly power can take away. And central to that dignity is freedom of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Promoting religious freedom is a key objective of U.S. foreign policy, Obama said. He said he is looking to fill the religious freedom ambassador position, one that Suzan Johnson Cook left last fall.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then again, it would be unfair of me, almost a conflict of interest, for me not to note the byline on that piece \u2014 Sarah Pulliam Bailey.<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps we should check out what happened over at The New York Times<\/em>?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014<\/strong> President Obama on Thursday scolded China, Iran, North Korea and other countries known for repressing religious minorities and declared that promoting freedom of faith around the world was a central goal of American foreign policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This raises an interesting question: What is the precise difference between \u201cfreedom of faith\u201d and \u201creligious liberty\u201d? <\/p>\n

Also, it\u2019s interesting to note that, while repeatedly using the term \u201creligious freedom,\u201d this Times<\/em> report includes zero references to the common term \u201creligious liberty.\u201d Is the goal, in this case, to avoid a term that is traditionally associated with the First Amendment? Note, for example, the language that is used over at the First Amendment Center<\/a> linked to the Newseum and Vanderbilt University (which is not exactly a power center for religious conservatives).<\/p>\n

How about CNN? The headline there was:<\/p>\n

President promotes religious freedom<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also, there were no scare quotes anywhere, even in a crucial paragraph \u2014 one lacking in many mainstream news reports \u2014 which linked this event to debates and controversies here in the United States.<\/p>\n

Obama did not address religious freedom in the United States, which some conservative groups say is under threat because of the controversial contraception mandate in the new health care law. Dozens of lawsuits, including two that have reached the Supreme Court, have been filed against the mandate on religious freedom grounds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what have we learned here? <\/p>\n

I am left with a two-part question: Have journalists (1) decided to drop the scare quotes around these terms when covering debates about the First Amendment or (2) have they decided not to use scare quotes when the speaker is President Obama?<\/p>\n

Just asking. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent years, there has been quite a bit of discussion at GetReligion about the ways in which mainstream journalists use \u201cscare quotes\u201d as a way to suggest which causes they see as questionable, as opposed to social, political, cultural or religious causes that they believe are serious concerns. Consider, for example, the terms \u201creligious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,7,3,12,106],"tags":[180,2928,1731],"class_list":["post-117518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholicism","category-journalism","category-politics","category-religion","category-religious-liberty","tag-barack-obama","tag-national-prayer-breakfast","tag-the-washington-post"],"yoast_head":"\nObama erases the 'scare quotes' around religious freedom?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In recent years, there has been quite a bit of discussion at GetReligion about the ways in which mainstream journalists use "scare quotes" as a way to\" \/>\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\/2014\/02\/obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama erases the 'scare quotes' around religious freedom?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In recent years, there has been quite a bit of discussion at GetReligion about the ways in which mainstream journalists use "scare quotes" as a way to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/02\/obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-08T19:59:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-02-08T20:10:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 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\/2014\/02\/obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/02\/obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom\/\",\"name\":\"Obama erases the 'scare quotes' around religious freedom?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-08T19:59:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-02-08T20:10:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"In recent years, there has been quite a bit of discussion at GetReligion about the ways in which mainstream journalists use \\\"scare quotes\\\" as a way to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/02\/obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/02\/obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/02\/obama-erases-the-scare-quotes-around-religious-freedom\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Obama erases the ‘scare quotes’ around religious freedom?\"}]},{\"@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." - 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