In response to reports of Web chatter, the Associated Press and other news agencies inquired with Olympic officials about whether Bibles will be allowed in the Olympic Village for the 2008 Olympics in China. Most reporters got the answer they wanted and probably expected. Yes, of course Bibles will not be banned in the Olympic Village. What kind of country do you think this is? Oh, wait.
The nuance and significance of the story are left unstated in most news reports. For example, here is the AP:
The USOC contacted the International Olympic Committee about the issue in response to a story posted on the Catholic News Agency Web site citing a list of prohibited items that was reported to include Bibles.
That story said the Italian daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, reported that organizers cited "security reasons" for prohibiting athletes from carrying any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities. Those reports and others were producing active blog discussions on several Web sites.
USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said the federation contacted the IOC about the news reports.
"We have heard from the IOC and there will be no restriction on athletes bringing the Bible or any other religious book into the village for their personal use," Seibel said in a telephone interview from USOC offices in Colorado Springs.
The emphasis of that sentence and the story should be on the restriction of Bibles and other religious literature to "personal use." Are athletes restricted from having their own religious services or Bible studies?
Perhaps that explains a Reuters story in which China proclaims a guarantee that religious services will be held in the Olympic Village:
China will offer religious services for foreigners arriving for the 2008 Olympic Games and religion will play a positive role in the country's future, its top religious affairs official said on Wednesday.
... Ye [Xiaowen, director-general of the State Administration for Religious Affairs,] said he expected large numbers of religious faithful among the athletes, coaches and tourists swarming into the officially atheist nation during the Olympics.
"We are learning from practices in past Games to make sure that their demands for religious worship are met," Ye told reporters on the sidelines of the ruling Communist Party's 17th Congress.
"Here I can promise that religious services we offer will not be lower than the level of any previous Games," Ye said. He did not say if proselytising would be allowed.
This Reuters piece is Exhibit A for scribe-style journalism. Important person with important title stands up and tells journalists something and their job is just to write the quotes down accurately and spit those quotes out in a sensible manner in 800 words or less. No follow-up questions, please.
Catholic News Agency has been all over this story and reports (with links) that there are still contradictory statements out there. One example is the recommendation that travelers to China only bring one Bible and that "Any printed material, film, tapes that are 'detrimental to China's politics, economy, culture and ethics' are also forbidden to bring into China."
The world's Big Media will descend on China next summer and the country will no doubt do its best to sweep under the rug those policies that restrict personal freedom of speech, the press and religion, among others. Whether the Big Media types, particularly those fancy TV evening news hosts, take the time and effort to stoop down and look under those rugs will say a lot about whether they value the freedoms they enjoy in the U.S.