The journalists who met at Columbia University on Oct. 5, 1993, knew we were in for a challenging and confusing day.<\/p>\n\n
We had, after all, come to New York to discuss \u201cReligion and the News.\u201d A veteran CBS producer said this was a tough topic, since most broadcasters don\u2019t consider religion newsworthy unless it veers into \u201cparty politics, pageantry or pedophilia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Freedom Forum researchers offered sobering statistics showing that 58 percent of liberal Protestant leaders affirmed the statement \u201cmost religion coverage is biased against ministers and organized religion.\u201d About 70 percent of Catholic priests agreed, along with \u2014 no surprise \u2014 91 percent of evangelical clergy. The report concluded that many journalists are \u201ctone deaf\u201d to the music of faith.<\/p>\n\n
Peter Jennings sat in the audience, scribbling in one of his private notebooks. He was gathering intellectual ammunition for his struggles to increase religion coverage at \u201cABC World News Tonight.\u201d He remained concerned about this issue throughout the final decade of his life and work.<\/p>\n\n
The anchorman tried to blend in, but a circle formed around him during a break. It was easy to explain why he was there, he said. There is a chasm of faith between most journalists and the people they cover day after day. Six months later, I called him and asked to continue to conversation.<\/p>\n\n
Anyone who has watched television, said Jennings, has seen camera crews descend after disasters. Inevitably, a reporter confronts a survivor and asks: \u201cHow did you get through this terrible experience?\u201d As often as not, a survivor replies: \u201cI don\u2019t know. I just prayed. Without God\u2019s help, I don\u2019t think I could have made it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
What follows, explained Jennings, is an awkward silence. \u201cThen reporters ask another question that, even if they don\u2019t come right out and say it, goes something like this: \u2018Now that\u2019s very nice. But what REALLY got you through this?\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
For most viewers, he said, that tense pause symbolizes the gap between journalists and, statistically speaking, most Americans. This is not a gap that is in the interest of journalists who worry \u2014 with good cause \u2014 about the future of the news.<\/p>\n\n
Jennings grew up as an altar boy in Canada. He knew the rites and the rules, learning that most Anglicans \u2014 clergy and laity \u2014 agreed to disagree about doctrine. It was OK, Jennings told Beliefnet.com, to say, \u201cI\u2019m not sure. I believe, but I\u2019m not quite so sure about the resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Over time, his globetrotting career turned him into what church researchers would call \u201ca seeker\u201d \u2014 even though Jennings disliked that trendy word. He declined to answer when asked: \u201cHave you ever experienced anything that you believed was miraculous?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
To hear him tell it, a funny thing happened to Jennings the journalist. The more he wrestled with his faith, the more he discovered he was interested in how faith shaped the lives of others. He began seeing religious ghosts in news events, first in the Middle East and then in middle America.<\/p>\n\n
Journalists strive to report the facts, he said. But it\u2019s a fact that millions of people say that faith plays a pivotal role in their actions and decisions. This affects the news. Can journalists ignore this? During a 1995 speech at Harvard Divinity School, Jennings quoted historian Garry Wills making this point.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt is careless,\u201d Jennings read aloud, \u201cto keep misplacing such a large body of people. ? Religion does not shift or waver. The attention of its observers does. Public notice, like a restless spotlight, returns at intervals to believers\u2019 goings on, finds them still going on, and with expressions of astonishment or dread, declares that religion is undergoing some boom or revival.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The key, Jennings said in interview after interview, is that journalists need to understand the facts about faith in order to do a better job covering the news.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be confused at all that somehow my interest in religion, faith and spirituality is somehow driven by any sense of faith or spirituality of my own. It is a fabulous story. It intersects with people\u2019s lives in ways that other people in newsrooms are not as lucky as I am to understand,\u201d he told Beliefnet.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis is a good and irresistible story. \u2026 My God, what else are we looking for in life? It is relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The journalists who met at Columbia University on Oct. 5, 1993, knew we were in for a challenging and confusing day. We had, after all, come to New York to discuss \u201cReligion and the News.\u201d A veteran CBS producer said this was a tough topic, since most broadcasters don\u2019t consider religion newsworthy unless it veers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[487,540,720,844],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-journalism","tag-media-bias","tag-religion-news","tag-television"],"yoast_head":"\n