Catholicism

Blind spots breaking out all over

Last night, I pointed out the Washington Post media writer Erik Wemple’s rather odd attempt to defend mainstream coverage of the Planned Parenthood PR and fundraising campaign of the Komen foundation. One of the things he’d said was that Ross Douthat’s New York Times column critiquing bad media coverage was “bunk” because you could find good coverage, too. Specifically, he pointed out, this Dallas Morning News story (“which carefully laid out both sides of the dispute”). How carefully, you ask? This carefully. Here’s the lede:


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Kurtz: Of course Komen stories were biased

As you poor GetReligion readers know, I’ve been pounding the beat on media coverage of Planned Parenthood’s campaign against Komen. You can read my earlier posts: “Media discover Planned Parenthood is controversial” (which took issue with how media reports told only half the story about how people feel about Planned Parenthood), “Media genuflect before Church of Planned Parenthood” (which critiqued how they were engaged in advocacy on behalf of Planned Parenthood), and “Planned Parenthood and media thank each other” (which cataloged how they thought they’d done good work in advocating for Planned Parenthood). I also wrote a piece for CNN collecting some of these thoughts: “My Take: On Komen Controversy, Media Told Half The Story.”


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Bias and balance in Aussie Catholic news

Anti-catholic bias in the press is not new. But I do wonder if fifteen years of abuse scandals has shifted the framework for reporting on the Roman Catholic Church.The default position in the press is that the Catholic Church is guilty as charged — no matter the charge.


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JFK meets Wheaton College (no, not that one)

As you would imagine, the new memoir by former White House intern Mimi Alford about her affair with President John F. Kennedy is causing a lot of buzz, even though the scope of Kennedy’s philandering has long been rumored, documented and then dismissed in Beltway circles.


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Race, religion, Maryland and gay marriage

Time for a quick flashback into the tmatt GetReligion folder of guilt. That’s the cyber-folder of mainstream news stories that I really want to dissect, but then other big stories come along that demand immediate attention and then, well, you know, the folder gets thicker and thicker. Sigh.


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Last temptation of Castro

Fidel Castro will be received back into the communion of the Roman Catholic Church during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island in March, the Italian press is reporting. If true, this is a remarkable story — and one that has yet to catch the attention of editors this side of the Atlantic.


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