Often you'll see political blogs regurgitating one another so the same storylines get pushed through the cycle. Some blogs do very good aggregation while others obviously use bait to get more clicks. Few blogs specialize in breaking new ground.
The Washington Examiner has some interesting quotes from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi about faith, contraception and politics. The headline that got me to click in? Pelosi: "'I do my religion on Sundays, in church''
On one hand, I applaud the blog for doing some reporting, a post that breaks new ground.
On the other hand, I'm still looking for a little bit more information, even if it's seen through an opinion-page lens. Even though we generally don't critique columns, blogs or stories outside of mainstream reporting, we hope information would be reported as thoroughly as possible. Here's what we know from the post:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a Roman Catholic, refused to say whether she supported her church's teaching that contraception is immoral.
"I do my religion on Sundays, in church, and I try to go other days of the week; I don't do it at this press conference," Pelosi said curtly as a reporter asked about her view of the church position on contraception.
When, where and in what context did she say this? How was the question asked?
Pelosi brushed off the organizations and church dioceses that filed suing the Obama administration over the contraception mandate. "I don't think that's the entire Catholic Church," she said. "Those people have a right to sue, but I dont think they're speaking ex cathedra for the Catholic Church."
I'd like to know what exactly the questions was and exactly how she "brushed off" the organizations. Did she say anything else on the health care mandate itself? Were there any other follow-up questions, or did she shift the press conference?
The post ends with some context from Pelosi's statements in February. Again, this isn't terribly unusual for a blog post, and hopefully we'll see more writers using blogs to report new information. Perhaps in the future, we could see a Q & A write up or even a video, especially since those with smartphones can record video and audio so easily.
Image via Wikimedia Commons.
