Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Via Romenesko, I found this story about a priest suing a newspaper over their lack of diligence in publishing a letter to the editor. The East Central Illinois News-Gazette has the story:
As we discussed the other day, many media reports about the Vatican document cracking down on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious went with the angle that the report “stunned” or otherwise surprised the sisters. I suggested that reports should do a better job of explaining that surprise.
MSNBC host Martin Bashir has a show that the cable network pitches as “Martin Bashir takes viewers across America and the globe to uncover the hidden side to the dayâs events, with thoughtful and provocative interviews with the people youâre talking about.” It turns out it’s even worse than it sounds.
Yesterday, as we were discussing a particularly helpful, if brief, discussion about the Vatican document regarding the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, reader Martha wrote that she agreed that the PBS discussion I highlighted was good:
With how many newspaper editorial pages expressed outrage over the Vatican’s paper on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, something tells me we’ll be looking at the mainstream news pages’ take on things for a while to come.
Charles Colson, who we discussed earlier this week, has died. Due to his significance in American life and his age, many papers had obituaries ready. The New York Times described the man this way in the lede:
As you may have heard, Charles Colson is in poor health and facing death. Here’s how Yahoo wrote it up:
One of the things I love about being a media critic is watching how a story develops over time. You may remember that years ago the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith launched a review of U.S. women religious communities. Several years ago, then, and before the the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was involved in helping President Obama pass his health care legislation, we were looking at discussions about the health of these religious orders. I remember tmatt’s column that included one such discussion:
In many ways, I’m pleased by the way that religion journalism has improved over the years, even with large cuts in newsrooms and other pressures. But if there’s one example of how religion journalism has not improved — indeed, gotten worse — it would have to be the way that the Roman Catholic WomenPriests stories are covered.
