On Thursday, I highlighted a fine piece of journalism produced by The Associated Press' filet mignon department — where reporter chefs with unlimited time, space and resources whip up the kind of delectable stories that win big prizes.
However, most AP journalists perform grueling labor in a different department — let's call it the, uh, Sausage Factory.
In most cases, grinding up press releases, chucking the uncooked meat immediately onto the wire and begging readers to devour the incomplete product — NOW! — does not make for the most quality or compelling journalism.
Take, for example, this tweet with which AP teased its 1.2 million Twitter followers about the same time my previous post was going up at GetReligion:
As an Oklahoma resident whose wife and 13-year-old daughter have been known to invest more of our family's funds than I'd like in Hobby Lobby — except on Sundays, when the company's stores are closed — I was intrigued by AP's tweet.
For one thing, this is Oklahoma, after all, and we tend to lean rather conservative politically and religiously. For another, I had read in The Oklahoman about the strong support for the Hobby Lobby lawsuit from the state's faith community — from the president of a Nazarene university to the Roman Catholic archbishop to the executive director of the Southern Baptists' Oklahoma state convention. (I may have missed it, but I don't recall an AP story or tweet on that support for Hobby Lobby. AP did, however, produce a fair report on the initial lawsuit filing.)
So I was curious to learn more about this "coalition of Oklahoma pastors" who were protesting the lawsuit. I clicked on the link and read this report:
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A coalition of Christian pastors in Oklahoma is opposing Hobby Lobby's lawsuit challenging federal health care guidelines that require the arts and crafts chain to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after pill.
The Rev. Lance Schmitz says more than 80,000 people signed petitions opposing the Oklahoma-based company's lawsuit. Schmitz tried to deliver the petitions Thursday to Hobby Lobby headquarters but was ordered to leave the property. The pastor says he will mail the petitions instead.
The company had no immediate comment.
Hobby Lobby, which operates more than 500 stores in 41 states, argues in its lawsuit that providing coverage for the morning-after pill violates its owners' "deeply held religious beliefs."
The petitions say Hobby Lobby should not use its Christian beliefs to deny women access to birth control.
That. Is. It. The entire report. Enjoy your sausage, 1.2 million people who follow AP on Twitter.
Who exactly are the pastors who comprise the reported coalition? Except for "the Rev. Lance Schmitz," who isn't exactly a household name, AP gives no clue.
Generally, AP's practice is to get the basic facts onto the wire quickly, then update with more detail and insight. So I clicked the link again three or four hours later to see if the story had improved. The only change that I recognized was that someone had introduced a "liberal" into the lede, a label intended, I guess, to differentiate these pastors from the Christian leaders quoted by The Oklahoman a week ago. The pastors later evolved into a "coalition of liberal Christian groups."
Eventually, a longer AP report made it onto the wire with this lede:
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Christian activists attempted Thursday to deliver a petition to Hobby Lobby criticizing its challenge to a portion of the new federal health care law, but guards at the company's headquarters turned them away.
"I thought they'd let me drop off the package," said the Rev. Lance Schmitz, pastor of the Capitol Hill Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City.
Schmitz said more than 80,000 people had signed copies of a petition circulated nationwide by Faithful America, an online Christian group, and UltraViolet, which promotes women's rights. Schmitz said he intends to mail the petition to the company.
To its credit, the final story gives a Hobby Lobby spokesman an opportunity to respond to the concerns expressed by the vague activists:
An attorney for the company, Kyle Duncan, said the Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, respects the religious convictions of others, "including those who do not agree with them."
"All they are asking is for the government to give them the same respect by not forcing them to violate their religious beliefs," Duncan said.
Lest I leave the impression that AP is the only news organization that produces sausage, feel free to take a big bite of this nasty FoxNews.com concoction.
Your turn, faithful GR readers: What do you think of "breaking news" sausage? Please focus on the journalistic issues.