Haitian voices: God and the quake

Terry Mattingly January 27th, 2010

So far, nothing I have seen coming out of Haiti has changed my mind about how journalists should approach the basic “theodicy” story.

I’ve said it several times already (click here and then here), I am really not that interested in what American religious broadcasters or even articulate American academics have to say about the role that God or the spirits did or didn’t play in causing the hellish earthquake that rocked Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area.

What matters to me are the v … (Read More)

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GetReligion.org - Terry Mattingly on SBE

Erik Guzman January 22nd, 2010

Scripps Howard religion writer Terry Mattingly joins us on this edition of Steve Brown Etc. for his yearly look at how the press just doesn't get religion.

We also read the hate-mail we received because of last week's comments on Pat Robertson and The Merry Monk of Love talks about his "Help Haiti Fast."

(If you're on the front page of the site, click read more to see player options.)

Terry Mattingly writes the nationally syndicated On Religion column for the Scripps H … (Read More)

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From cheerleading to coaching

Terry Mattingly November 6th, 2009

Second verse, same as the first.

As I continue to read the New York Times coverage of the Maine vote, my mind drifted back to these lines from Daniel Okrent, the newspaper's former ombudsman, in his infamous 2004 column entitled "Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?" News junkies will recall that his lede said bluntly, "Of course it is."

But on the subject of news "templates" or "maps," here is a thought for the second day of coverage, drawn fro … (Read More)

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Your average Chesterton fan

Terry Mattingly September 22nd, 2009

As the Divine Mrs. M.Z. Hemingway has been demonstrating, the mainstream press has shown quite a bit of interest in the religious roots of the anti-ACORN video reporter Hannah Giles and, in particular, the social and political views of her minister father and, to a lesser degree by inference, their home Clash Church.

Strangely enough, less ink has been poured out on the background of the video mastermind himself, James E. O’Keefe III. He has, by the way, grown from being a “filmmaker” in t … (Read More)

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Faith & football — to the max

Terry Mattingly August 12th, 2009

Regular readers of GetReligion.org may have noticed that some of your GetReligionistas are big sports fans, which includes the National Football League in several cases. This continues to be the case even though young master Daniel Pulliam is inactive, while serving as editor of a law review.

Regular readers may also know that we are big fans of intelligent question-and-answer interviews, especially when this format allows a skilled journalist to let intelligent and colorful people stretch out a … (Read More)

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Fretting about post-Tiller coverage

Terry Mattingly June 3rd, 2009

It’s getting harder and harder to read the coverage of the George Tiller murder, in large part because the Associated Press Stylebook doesn’t have separate references for “pro-life” and “anti-abortion.”

I’m not saying that this journalistic bible should contain two references. Honest. I’m just saying that — as an Eastern Orthodox pro-lifer — I am really yearning for one right now. Why is that? Let me show you, using this bite of a Washington Post report that makes me want to … (Read More)

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