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Please consider this post the strangest possible sequel to my recent posts on the need for journalists to be more precise when using terms such as “Islamist.”
Anyone who has read GetReligion through the years knows that I am, as a rule, an admirer of the work of David D. Kirkpatrick of the New York Times. I know, from experience, how hard he works to make sure that he handles religious language in a way that is accurate and balanced.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called upon Iran last week not to proceed with its nuclear weapons program, warning that deployment of atomic weapons by Teheran would destabilize the Middle East, a story prepared by AFP reported.
It is hard to read the recent Washington Post story about the rising power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptian political life without concluding that the most important word in it is “Islamist.” After all, this term shows up 11 times in the text — including in the lede.
The Associated Press has a story about a child in Morocco who killed herself after she was forced to marry her rapist. Amina Filali was raped when she was 15 and was 16 when she took her own life. She had complained to her mother that she was being beaten during her five-month marriage and we’re told that the mother counseled patience. Here’s the top of the story:
For several years now (click here for an early post) I have been asking a rather basic journalistic question: “What is Newsweek?”
The front page of Tuesday’s New York Times including a “side bar” by Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak headlined “âWe the Peopleâ Loses Appeal With People Around the World.”
Wednesday’s broom fight between Greek and Armenian clergy at the Church of the Nativity has come as a god-send to the editors manning the desks of news rooms this Christmas. With the year-in-review pieces done and the boss away until Tuesday, the junior editors ruling the roost have been handed a fun item with which to play.
