Babylon is at war.
Or something like that.
In a post Thursday, I analyzed Religion News Service’s report on a feud between the Christian satire website the Babylon Bee and internet fact-checker Snopes.
Enter the National Review’s David French with details on Buzzfeed News publishing a misleading story about the controversy.
Meanwhile, let’s dive into the Friday Five:
1. Religion story of the week: It’s not exactly breaking news (unless you count 1990 as breaking news) that major news organizations have a real hard time covering abortion in a fair and impartial manner.
The latest example: Julia Duin highlights a USA Today story on Jewish views on abortion that somehow manages to neglect quoting a single Orthodox source.
“Next time, USA Today, approach the Jews who are out there having the most babies and get their read on abortion,” Duin suggests. “I would have liked to have known their point of view.”
Also this week, I looked at an unsatisfying Washington Post report on an abortion debate in a small Texas town, and Terry Mattingly offered thoughts on three different kinds of Democrats (yes, abortion comes into play).
2. Most popular GetReligion post: “Yo, Los Angeles Times: Crystal Cathedral's architecture raised all kinds of Catholic questions.”
That’s the word — in our No. 1 commentary of the week — from tmatt.
“What about the shape of the cathedral itself?” he asks in his post. “Was there any attempt to move from modernism to a form with ties to centuries of Catholic tradition?”
3. Guilt folder fodder (and more): Religion News Service’s Adelle M. Banks has a new series “on slavery and religion published as Americans commemorate the 400th anniversary of the forced arrival of enslaved Africans in Virginia.”
Already, I’m seeing stories from New York City, Montgomery, Ala., and Jamestown, Va.
I haven’t had a chance to read the stories yet, but I’m looking forward to doing so.
4. Shameless plug: In case you missed it, the Poynter Institute’s Kelly McBride wrote about Fox News “repurposing” — without proper credit or attribution — a story on Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly that I wrote for The Christian Chronicle.
McBride’s article has gone pretty viral in the world of journalism, with everyone from the Society of Professional Journalists to Editor & Publisher magazine sharing it.