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Isn’t it interesting how unfamiliar some folks are with religious language? A reporter passed on this example and it’s telling. It comes from a Politico story about why no one at IRS will ever be held accountable for targeting people for their political beliefs (turns out such targeting is a no-no in our country — [...]

Let’s start with the actual words spoken by Pope Francis, in his much quoted, and often warped, sermon on Mark 9:38-40 and the work of Jesus Christ in redeeming all of creation, including the people in it. The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and [...]

It’s kind of charming that all popes have to deal with bad media coverage and global press frenzies. This week we’ve seen some awful media coverage of Pope Francis, including coverage of his blessing of a man after Mass on Sunday. Part of the blame must go to the Italian press, which really went crazy [...]

Something happened on Monday at the General Assembly the Church of Scotland — they appear to have become Anglicans. No — they didn’t change from a Presbyterian to Episcopal form of church government. They did something more Anglican than combining bishops with Calvinism.  They’ve accepted the sacred “yes/but”  Anglican doctrine of deliberate confusion,  and have [...]

The Oklahoman, my hometown newspaper and former employer, is rising to the occasion in its coverage of this week’s Moore, Okla.,tornado. That’s no surprise for a newspaper that has gained way too much experience covering major tragedies — including the Oklahoma City bombing and the May 3, 1999, tornadoes. Nonetheless, I’m going to provide a little constructive [...]

As an Evangelical in the media, I’m sympathetic to the struggle journalists have with reporting on our peculiar tradition. When simply defining what the term “Evangelical” means poses a challenge, it can be difficult to know how to report on shared beliefs within Evangelicalism, much less the on the more controversial sub-movements within the tradition. The BBC [...]

Oh what a perfect clip for GetReligion. You have to watch it to get the full gist but CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer is, above, interviewing Oklahoma tornado survivor Rebecca, holding her son Anders. (Full interview here.) Then, as transcribed by Politico: Blitzer: We’re happy you’re here. You guys did a great job. I guess you [...]

Just before noon Monday, my two younger children and I drove along Interstate 35 through Moore, Okla., under a bright sky. It’s impossible to comprehend the grisly scene along that same path now. Ironically, I had spent the weekend in Texas reporting on tornado relief efforts in the Lone Star State. That meant we missed [...]

Let me draw your attention to this fascinating article in the Parisian weekly news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur about the new generation of Catholics arising in France. The article « Plongée dans la galaxie “catho-réac-décomplexée” » in Le Nouvel Obs (with a circulation of over 500,000 it is France’s most widely read general information weekly) asks [...]

As I have stressed many times here at GetReligion, it’s important for readers to understand that reporters rarely write the headlines that accompany their stories. Editors and specialists at copy desks write the headlines. It’s tough work, and I say that as someone who did that job for several years early in my career. A [...]

Over at Intercollegiate Review, I have a piece with some helpful journalism tips. Here’s how “How to Be a Really Lousy Journalist for Fun and Profit” begins: There has never been a better time to consider a career in journalism. Newspapers are thriving, magazines are innovating, online journalism listicles are becoming more substantive, and cable-news [...]

Did you hear about the anteater that conceived a baby even though she had no male mate around? I mean, she had a mate, but he was removed from her area longer than the six months required to gestate a baby anteater. Theories for how this miracle happened include the very non-miraculous idea that the [...]

Truth be told, I still think that the question I asked a few weeks ago remains one of the most interesting questions one can ask about that big story that keeps unfolding down in Waco: “So, how did Brittney Griner end up at Baylor?” That’s an interesting question for Griner. That’s an interesting question for [...]

In a recent post about an error in a story about a new saint, readers talked about the notable lack of media coverage of another set of new saints — Christians martyred by Islamic invaders. One reader commented: The mainstream media didn’t seem particularly interested in a group of Catholics martyred by Islamic invaders. Every [...]

On a recent Crossroads podcast, host Todd Wilken remarked with interest on how many of the year’s major news stories have to do with religion. A cursory glance at the headlines proves it, year after year. But even the non-religion news stories frequently have religion angles. And so it is with one of the scandals [...]

Here at GetReligion, we focus mainly on critiquing the mass media’s coverage of religion news. Occasionally, though, we like to call attention to news related to the Godbeat itself. Alas, at least three well-known individuals in the world of religion news reporting have made or announced major moves in recent weeks. And as we all [...]

So a nun and two peace activists walk into a nuclear facility … It’s not the start of a bad joke, but the start of what could turn out to be a bad dream for a trio of protestors convicted of trespassing and defacing a nuclear weapons site. A few weeks ago tmatt mentioned the [...]

The first question I faced, in this week’s “Crossroads” interview, sounded relatively simple: Why did journalists struggle to use the word “fetus” accurately when covering the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell? Like or not, I have had to pay a lot of attention to this issue in recent weeks. For those who have been off [...]

At first glance, the current mini-wave of news coverage of former underwear model Kylie Bisutti is nothing more than a chance — in this search-engine-driven world in which we live — to slide the mouse-click friendly terms “God” and “Victoria’s Secret” into the same headline. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. On closer inspection [...]

Let’s begin this post with a quick definition from Burton’s Legal Thesaurus, 4th edition: civil liberties noun First Amendment guarantees, First Amendment Rights, freedom of expression, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, fundamental individual rights, guarantees from the Bill of Rights, human rights, individual rights, right to life, right to [...]