In my 30-year journalism career, I’ve covered more major news than I can recall.

In most cases, I’ve experienced an adrenaline rush as I set about to do my job, which I consider as much a calling as a profession.

A few times, though, a particular story has felt absolutely overwhelming, like it dwarfed me and my ability to cover it adequately.

The first time came on April 19, 1995, when my colleagues at The Oklahoman and I suddenly found ourselves reporting on what was then the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil — the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In all, 168 of our friends and neighbors died that day.

The second time came six years later on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorist-piloted planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa. The death toll that day: 2,977.

Now, the world finds itself grappling with an invisible killer: COVID-19. As I type this, the global coronavirus pandemic has resulted in more than 10,000 deaths. The number of infections approaches 250,000.

In an interview with Poynter.org, NBC’s Lester Holt — whom I respect — said: “I always thought 9/11 would be the biggest story I would ever cover. But this is the biggest story we have ever seen.”

Wow. That’s an amazing statement from a journalist of Holt’s status.

Is he right? Is this “the biggest story we have ever seen?” I’d humbly suggest that we don’t know yet, as massive and, yes, as absolutely overwhelming as COVID-19 seems at this point.

I asked a few respected colleagues for their insights on that question as well as details on how their news organizations are covering this major, major news. Look for their feedback below in a revised version of my normal Weekend Plug-In format.

1. Bob Smietana, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service: “It’s certainly the biggest story we’ve seen in the 18 months I’ve been editor at RNS. We will have to see if it’s the biggest ever. When I was at The Tennessean, we had a primary, a major tornado and then a mosque burning in one week, in the midst of an economic meltdown — so that’s still my measuring stick. And it would also be hard to top 9/11.

“At RNS, we’re covering the immediate response — both the change to online religion and relief efforts — and then looking at how faith groups adapt to this new reality. If there’s a ban on groups of more than 50 people meeting, that would affect 60% of houses of worship and 90% of religious service attenders, according to the National Congregations Study. So for almost everyone in the U.S., religious worship services in person will be disrupted. If this lasts for a while, who knows what will happen.

“Will it spur a transition to digital religion? Will folks give up the habit of meeting in person? How will faith groups collect money? Will some have to shutter permanently? Will this make us more addicted to our phones? Or will we get sick of them and give them up when this is over — in favor of face-to-face religion.”

2. Richard N. Ostling, retired religion writer for Time magazine and The Associated Press: “Most or all people living today ‘have never seen’ the global devastation from World War II, the Great Depression, the 1918 flu pandemic or World War I, so Holt's phrase limits us to catastrophes in more recent times.

“Though The Virus may end up killing many more people, one could make the case that the rise of religiously inspired terrorism by a radical faction within Islam over these decades is an even bigger story. A year from now can better judge that comparison. As for more optimistic themes, there are at least two worthy competitors: the advances in goodwill among still-separated Christian churches, and seen together the end of Jim Crow in the United States and racial apartheid in South Africa.”

3. Kelsey Dallas, national religion writer for the Deseret News: “This is the biggest story I've seen in my six years as a full-time reporter. It's all hands on deck in my newsroom, as each of us searches for unique ways to cover the COVID-19 crisis through the lens of our specific beat. So far, I've written about worship services and germs, virtual ministry, partisan tensions and the religious freedom consequences of the coronavirus, and I'm sure there are plenty more COVID-19 stories in my future. 

“Even as I churn through assignments, I've struggled quite a bit with whether I'm doing enough. If this really is the biggest story of the decade or past 50 years or next 50 years, should I really still be sleeping eight hours a night? Should I be going for walks with my dogs? Should I be watching ‘Batman Begins’ with my husband? I'm experiencing some guilt during the moments where my life feels normal since so much about what we're going through is completely abnormal.”

(I recall the guilt that Dallas describes from my Oklahoma City bombing experience a quarter-century ago. Note to Kelsey: Yes, sleep eight hours. Go for walks with your dogs. Watch the movie with your husband. You’ll be no good to your newspaper and your readers if you don’t. Trust me, I know from past experience.)

4: Peter Smith, religion editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and president of the Religion News Association: “I still feel like we're on the beach seeing the water go out and not sure how big the incoming tsunami will be — bad or catastrophic.

“The two biggest shocks to our (national) system in my lifetime were 9/11 and the 2008 economic meltdown, each of which changed much about the way we lived. Maybe the Trump election, too, which scrambled how we do politics, government, religion, even family life. (Globally, we could cite the end of the Cold War.)

“There are also long-range megastories that unfold slowly, so we can't really point to an instant shock to the national and world systems, the way that 9/11 or Sept. 15, 2008, did. There's climate change, first of all, but also the vast migration from the Global South to Global North, and domestically the impact of opioids and gun violence and the strain of our endless wars on a small percentage of our population — military families.

“For religion writers, the big stories of our time included 9/11, the clergy abuse crisis, the mix of politics and religion. Some of us have our personal red-letter dates, such as 10/27 (the Tree of Life attack).

“But with all those stories, someone could still, say, go to church on Sunday, then go out to brunch, then visit Grandma in the nursing home, then go out to a concert or sports event. What these other stories didn't do was cancel all public events, shoo us into our homes and create an instant recession and a historic stock market crash, with a health-care crisis on the horizon.

“So, definitely one of the biggest stories. We'll know more soon.”

5. Eileen Flynn DeLaO, community news editor and former religion writer for the Austin American-Statesman: “I think Lester Holt is right precisely because of the impact on religion. For many, there is no sanctuary. I know believers are making the best of online services and home worship and that some may even be spiritually reinvigorated by this challenge. But the shuttering of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc., at a time of such fear and uncertainty seems unthinkable.

“For coverage — when I can sneak some in between editing stories for my weeklies — I’m taking the pulse of my religious sources, finding out what adjustments they’re making. Will also explore some themes of the spring holidays and how believers are exploring those themes during this crisis.”

6. Terry Mattingly, nationally syndicated religion columnist and editor of GetReligion.org: “I don't think that we know yet [if it’s the biggest story we have seen]. It certainly could be — but much depends on the death toll. 

“Also, how are you defining LIFETIME? Your lifetime? Dick Ostling's? 

“This is, perhaps, the biggest Theodicy story since the World Wars and the Holocaust. As always, many will be angry at God while others will dig deeper into their faith traditions (perhaps in new ways, with social distancing and WWW links).

“Right now, I am focusing on whether the press will GET how remarkable the upcoming Holy Week/Easter story is going to be. That image of Pope Francis walking through the empty streets of Rome on a prayer walk made me think that — if he chose to do so — he could completely re-image the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, going from symbolic site to site in Rome.”

7. Joe Hight, the Edith Kinney Gaylord Endowed Chair of Journalism Ethics at the University of Central Oklahoma and former Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette: “I think this has the potential to be the biggest global story of our time. Other stories, such as 9/11, Katrina, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Port Arthur massacre, the Troubles, all had various degrees of impact.

“Each one had an immediate direct and then long-term impact on communities in which they occurred, and then even broader impact on other communities outside of them. Thus, each had a ripple effect that extended far beyond their immediate communities. This is one with global impact that now affects or could affect each of our communities directly.

“I think the media's approach to the coronavirus pandemic has and will become increasingly important. Are we creating more alarm and anxiety because of our coverage? Are victims more than just numbers to us, and are we demonizing them just because they came down with the virus? Are we providing tips to help people deal not only physically but mentally with this crisis?

“Is our coverage balanced between providing coverage about the pandemic and our community's response to it, as well as how members of our community are coping with its impact? Are we providing various outlets for our audience? Are we ensuring our newsrooms are practicing self-care as much as we are about informing the public about it?

“These will be important questions that all newsrooms and journalists must consider because this story has the potential to extend into 2021, by some projections.

“P.S. The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma provides some important tips for coverage of these types of mass tragedies. It now has a section on the coronavirus. I would advise that we all need to brush up on them as we continue this coverage.”

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

Sally Stapleton, New York-based global religion editor for The Association Press, told me about her team’s approach to the coronavirus:

We on the Religion team at the AP launched this week a continuing series highlighting stories about unknown moments of individual sacrifice and kindness during the virus outbreak. We’re calling it “One Good Thing.”

Think about those individual or group efforts that have taken something dire, restrictive, sad or unworkable and made it better. Or it could be spontaneous acts of generosity and human warmth in a difficult time. We’d like to steer clear of nonprofits or social activist groups, whose job it is to do these things normally. These should be examples of people who stepped in and helped, or just took some action that connected human to human at a difficult time. It can be something as large as untold stories of those on the front lines saving lives to the extreme of a child helping a neighbor. Our goal with these stories is that readers are moved.

Just two stories from that project: Lori Hinnant reports on Europeans singing health workers’ praises from windows, and Leanne Italie and Jessie Wardarski highlight two 20-somethings extending “invisible hands” during the virus outbreak.

Jeremy Weber, director of Christianity Today Global, also shared what his crew is doing:

We're focused, as we always are, on finding thought-provoking angles from overlooked experts to take the story forward and constructively augment what other outlets are doing. Especially with an eye to international, as a third of our readers are outside the U.S., and it's a big growth area for us.

So, for example:

We published practical and theological advice from churches in Singapore to churches in the U.S./West that has been well received. It’s our No. 5 most-read story of 2020 so far, with 60% of readers outside the U.S.

Back in January, we published the first reflection on Martin Luther's plague advice, which has had a long tail and due to popular response we translated into six languages, including Chinese and Korean.

We published a great actionable piece from a Gates Foundation expert in Seattle on whether churches should close, which will soon become our No. 1 most-read story of 2020 (other than the long tail of Mark Galli's Trump editorial).

And we've leveraged our AP/RNS subscription, such as on Korea and Groeschel, which has been great.

We've also done some podcasts and Twitter chats. The best of our coronavirus content can be found here.

Lots more in the pipeline!

Continue reading “A Question Of News: Global Coronavirus Pandemic Is BIG, But Exactly How Big?”, by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.