From cheerleading to coaching

Terry Mattingly November 6th, 2009

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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 … (Read More)

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Your average Chesterton fan

Terry Mattingly September 22nd, 2009

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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 fro … (Read More)

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Faith & football — to the max

Terry Mattingly August 12th, 2009

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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 col … (Read More)

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Fretting about post-Tiller coverage

Terry Mattingly June 3rd, 2009

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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 … (Read More)

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LAT: Is the pope Catholic?

Terry Mattingly March 30th, 2009

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As the old saying goes in hurricane territory, "I think we're in for a bit of a blow."

It will be interesting to see how the mainstream press handles the facts in the upcoming culture warfare over President Barack Obama's scheduled commencement address at the University of Notre Dame.

There is a real story here, of course. Rest assured that Catholics are going to split on how to handle this, because American Catholics - including some bishops, based … (Read More)

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Is Rush the new Pat Robertson?

Terry Mattingly February 18th, 2009

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Raise your hand if you think that religious conservatives play a major role in the power structure of the Republican Party today.

Raise your hand if you think Rush Limbaugh is an important leader in the Republican Party.

OK, raise your hand if you think that the combination of these two facts means that Limbaugh is a leader in the Religious Right or some other stream of religious conservatism. That's a harder question, isn't it? To be blunt, I know some religi … (Read More)

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