Fake News

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Hot Takes: Ryan Burge on return of debates about evangelicals and QAnon (etc.)

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Hot Takes: Ryan Burge on return of debates about evangelicals and QAnon (etc.)

Well, Bobby Ross, Jr., is taking the week off.

Thus, I went looking for another list of religion-news material featuring short punchy takes on lots and lots of different topics.

I settled on this VICE News chat with GetReligion contributor Ryan Burge — that must-follow guy on Twitter who is also well known for his work at the Religion in Public weblog.

To say that this punchy little video report includes some Hot Takes is an understatement. Yes, there is a flashback to the whole QAnon and evangelicalism wars.

However, let me stress that there are some producers at VICE News who are sincerely interested in the complex world of American evangelicalism and they are doing their homework. I know this because I sent about three hours with one of their production teams several months ago and I know the wide range of materials that we covered.

That video is still in a vault somewhere. It would be interesting if they turned bites of it into a bullet-list collection of takes similar to this one with the always quotable Burge.

So what shows up in this Burge blast? He put this list out on social media:

Things I discuss in this Vice News video:

QAnon

John Darby

Dispensationalism

Thomas Jefferson as the anti-Christ


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These ratings and tips on media bias can help news consumers and journalists (updated)

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These ratings and tips on media bias can help news consumers and journalists (updated)

On Inauguration Day last week, CNN was newly proclaimed to be politically on the "Left," joining rival MSNBC. Previously, the cable news net was in the softer "Lean Left" category that includes news coverage by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time magazine, The Economist, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Politico, ABC, CBS and NBC.

Meanwhile, Fox News, New York Post, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, Christianity Today, ChristianPost.com and Salt Lake City's Latter-day Saint Church-owned Deseret News are considered to "Lean Right." Breitbart, Daily Caller, Daily Wire, Federalist and Fox News opinion shows are straight-up "Right," as is the Rev. Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network.

Not many major news organizations are positioned in the less partisan "Center." They include The Associated Press (though its Fact Check feature "Leans Left"), Axios, BBC, Christian Science Monitor, Forbes, NPR news (though its opinion fare "Leans Left"), Reuters, The Hill, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal's news copy.

Who sez?

The team at Allsides.com, whose continually updated "Media Bias Ratings" compiled from readers and viewers judge 800 outlets on the five-point scale, ranging from BiblicalSexology.com (!) to ZeroHedge.com. The site also posts current media examples that demonstrate ideological slant, as well as articles of interest to reporters such as a history of "wokeness" picked up from Vox.com (rated "Left").

The judgments are debatable, of course, but worth considering.

The bias-o-meter assesses only online media postings, not what's issued in print or broadcast. We're told that ratings "do not reflect accuracy or credibility; they reflect perspective only."

Though "bias" sounds negative, this site doesn't oppose point-of-view journalism but seeks to fairly characterize news organizations and inform consumers accordingly.

Allsides boasts that its three co-founders are "a proud, active Republican" and former party operative, "a proud, active Democrat" who co-founded MoveOn.org, and the tech guy who's "more centrist and less active politically." The operation lives off donations, which have included groups linked with the likes of Tom Steyer on the left and Charles Koch on the right.

The Guy especially calls attention to this site's memo on "How to Spot 11 Types of Media Bias."


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'Fake news' and the lure of conspiracy theories: Are evangelicals the only folks fooled?

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'Fake news' and the lure of conspiracy theories: Are evangelicals the only folks fooled?

A majority of evangelicals are worried about "fake news" and they also think mainstream journalists are part of the problem.

The question, as pandemic-weary Americans stagger into the 2020 elections, is how many believers in this voting bloc have allowed their anger about "fake news" to push them toward fringe conspiracy theories about the future of their nation.

Some of these theories involve billionaire Bill Gates and global coronavirus vaccine projects, the Antichrist's plans for 5G towers, Democrats in pedophile rings or all those mysterious "QAnon" messages. "Q" is an anonymous scribe whose disciples think is a retired U.S. intelligence leader or maybe even President Donald Trump.

The bitter online arguments sound like this: Are these conspiracies mere "fake news" or is an increasingly politicized American press -- especially on politics and religion -- hiding dangerous truths behind its own brand of "fake news"?

"A reflexive disregard of what are legitimate news sources can feed a penchant for conspiracy theories," said Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.

Many mainstream journalists do a fine job of covering the complex world of evangelicalism, stressed Stetzer, reached by email.

Nevertheless, he added: "I think that the bias of much of mainstream news has to be considered in this conversation. Many evangelicals have seen, over and over, news sources report on them irresponsibly, with bias, and -- at times -- with malice. When you see that enough, about people you know, there is a consequence. Regrettably, I don't think many in the mainstream news world are thinking, 'We should have done better.' "

It doesn't help that Americans disagree about the meaning of "fake news."


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Fake News? The Economist team doesn't know where Liberty University is located

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If you were going to create a Top 10 list of high-quality journalism institutions in our world today, surely The Economist would be in there somewhere.

Now let's put a different spin on that. If you were going to create a list of prestigious publications that do not deserve the label "Fake News," I would imagine that The Economist would make that list.

So what are you supposed to do when you hit the spew-your-coffee moment in this new piece that was published in that elite magazine over in England, the feature that ran under the headline:

Faith and higher education can intersect in many different ways

An ever-shifting relationship between campus and church

The piece opens with a discussion of a recent address at Oxford University by Father John Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, on the subject of academic and intellectual freedom.

Then there is this piece of analysis, which contains the spew-worthy error mentioned earlier. Wait for it.

To some American conservatives, this emphasis on free-ranging inquiry, rather than the axioms of faith, will only confirm what they suspected: that Notre Dame and other historically Catholic colleges are drifting far from their Christian roots and are on the road to becoming virtually identical to secular places of learning. But the real situation is more interesting. In the ecology of American higher education, there are many different relationships with religion. There are zealously Christian establishments like Liberty University in Tennessee, which may be the largest non-profit college in the world, with 15,000 students at its Lynchburg campus and another 110,000 engaged in online learning. First-year students take Bible classes and there is a “code of honour” that bars extra-marital sex.


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