For BBC czar, race always trumps religion

Terry Mattingly April 2nd, 2012

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It's the question that gets asked whenever an alleged comedian on HBO goes a bit nuts on the subject of religious believers.

It's the same question people asked when some NFL players mocked Tim Tebow's love of public prayer.

It's the same question conservative Catholics, and others, asked when the hierarchy at The New York Times made the decision to run a full-page anti-Catholic advertisement that urged liberal and nominal Catholics to pack up and q … (Read More)

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Pod people: Birth control or religious liberty?

Terry Mattingly February 6th, 2012

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Finally.

I think someone may have had a journalistic epiphany on the whole Health and Human Services thing.

But before we go there, stop and, for a moment, join me in contemplating the following journalism puzzle.

The Obama administration's new HHS regulations - click here for a sample of GetReligion coverage - continue to cause an electric buzz here inside the Beltway. At the moment, people continue to focus on the Catholic angle of this story.

That's logica … (Read More)

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Pod people: Steve Jobs, megachurch star?

Terry Mattingly October 17th, 2011

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Radio guy Todd Wilken really ambushed me late this week when we hooked up to do the latest "Crossroads" podcast (click here to download or here to listen on your computer).

The goal was to talk about the role that religion did or didn't play in the life and death of Steve Jobs, whose passing was marked with the kind of flood of digital and literal ink that is reserved for the most beloved members of the Baby Boom Generation.

Think about it. How many majo … (Read More)

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Now, this is why CNN has a religion blog!

Terry Mattingly January 12th, 2011

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Don't you just love it when Congress holds hearings on a complex topic - think the state of family farming - and the powers that be call a famous actress as a witness because, in a movie, she played a woman whose farm is in trouble?

The flip side of that is when journalists turn away from the real experts on the scene when dealing with a complex topic (or calling on people with direct, practical experience) and focus on the opinions of celebrities or the views of … (Read More)

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Flashback: B16 at Westminster Abbey

Terry Mattingly September 28th, 2010

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GetReligion is well into its sixth year and, every now and then, I am reminded how much the writing that I do here has changed me in my work as a columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service, a task that I've been at for about 23 years.

Yes, every now and then, I read the coverage of a major news event and I can't help but think, "Why in the world did everybody cover that part of the event and not THIS part of the event?" At that point it's pr … (Read More)

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Patricia Neal and her angels

Terry Mattingly August 25th, 2010

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After her destructive affairs with married men, after the death of her first child, after an accident left her infant son brain-damaged, after the near-fatal strokes that struck months after her 1964 Oscar win for "Hud," actress Patricia Neal faced yet another personal crisis that left her on the verge of collapse.

While her marriage to British writer Roald Dahl, the author of children's classics such as "James and Giant Peach," had long been tr … (Read More)

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