Regarding Bishop Chaput and press bias against religion

Bishop Chaput and others don't want to hear it, and his first comment on this topic included unfortunate language, but Mark Silk is exactly right:

I've spent the better part of two decades studying, writing about, and contributing to news coverage of religion. As in any other field of endeavor, there's the good, the bad, and the ugly. And that means the field can be cherry-picked to make a case for hostility to one or another religious tradition, or to religion in general. But with the exception of certain cult-like groups (the Church of Scientology, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, etc.), across-the-board bias is not to be found--and certainly not against the Catholic Church.

Scientology fights back toward decline [Addendum]

Hiring veteran journalists to counter-investigate the St. Petersburg Times was a strategy with something of a reverse twist. Scientology is under scrutiny in Australia [1,2,3], headed for the silver screen in Germany and still on the pages of U.S. news publications [1,2,3].

Just for example, you understand.

All of the well-known Scientology strategies keep applying, as makers of the film "Bis Nichts Mehr Bleibt" (Until Nothing Remains) illustrated when they reported via the Guardian:

The film team said it had been "bombarded" with phone calls and emails from the organisation during production. The head of the Southwest German broadcasting organisation, Carl Bergengruen who was involved in the project, said Scientology had "tried via various means to discover details about the film" and that the film crew was even tailed by a Scientology representative.

"We are fearful that the organisation will try to use all legal means to try to stop the film being shown," he said.

The film itself sounds like a classical Scientology exit story with an especially tragic conclusion:

According to the makers of Until Nothing Remains, the €2.5m (£2.3 m) drama, which is due to air in a prime-time slot at the end of March, is based on the true story of Heiner von Rönns, who left Scientology and suffered the subsequent break-up of his family.

Scientology calls the film false and intolerant, and distributed flyers at a Hamburg preview, accusing the filmmakers of aiming to "create a mood of intolerance and discrimination against a religious community."

All of that effort to defeat critics while building attractive homes for the church. Yet as PZ Meyers pointed out from his reading of the NY Times investigation, they're apparently shrinking:

The church is vague about its membership numbers. In 11 hours with a reporter over two days, Mr. Davis, the church's spokesman, gave the numbers of Sea Org members (8,000), of Scientologists in the Tampa-Clearwater area (12,000) and of L. Ron Hubbard's books printed in the last two and a half years (67 million). But asked about the church's membership, Mr. Davis said, "I couldn't tell you an exact figure, but it's certainly, it's most definitely in the millions in the U.S. and millions abroad."

He said he did not know how to account for the findings in the American Religious Identification Survey that the number of Scientologists in the United States fell from 55,000 in 2001 to 25,000 in 2008.

If you make projections from those numbers, as Meyers did, they appear to have done some magnificent architectural restoration without building a future.

Addendum: Preview of the movie

The opening lines of the preview refer to Scientologist Tom Cruise’s role in the movie "Valkyrie." There was considerable tension while Valkyrie was being filmed. At one point, according to the London Daily Mail, Thomas Gandow, Sect Commissioner for the German Evangelical Church, "said the film is propaganda for Scientology" and described Cruise was the 'Goebbels of Scientology.'"

The movie still scheduled to air on ARD on March 31

Update: ‘Irish anti-clericalism’ arson ruled out

The London Telegraph's Will Heaven was apparently first among the bloggers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) to react to the St Mel’s Cathedral fire with lurid fantasies of “Irish anti-clericalism” gone to arson. And as lurid fantasies often do, it is coming to nothing that one has come to notning:

Longford Gardai have confirmed that they are no longer treating the fire at St Mel's Cathedral as arson.

Chief investigation officer Inspector Joe McLoughlin told www.longfordleader.ie that the Garda Technical team completed the technical examination of the Cathedral today.

"We are no longer treating the fire as suspicious," Inspector McLoughlin stated. However he added that Gardai were not in a position to confirm what caused the fire which destroyed the Cathedral on Christmas morning but the Garda Forensic Team is expected to furnish a report on the fire soon.

Yet insinuations of arson were directed on the day after Christmas at the victims of abuse. For example, Heaven wrote:

Given the recent resignation of a second Irish bishop after a report revealed the cover-up of child sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese, it could be that this was a deliberate attack on the Irish Catholic Church. If so, it marks a new chapter of anti-clericalism in Ireland.

There was no supporting rich history of the victims of clerical sex abuse torching church facilities.

Thus the cry of "deliberate attack on the Irish Catholic Church" was a groundless allegation which tended to tar the victims of other crimes.

It was despicable and now that it is proven false, corrections and apologies are owed by all who made the claim.

Top-ranked 2009 religion stories, etc ...

The Religion | Newswriters Association offers Top Religion Stories of 2009 - the result of a survey of more than 100 religion journalists. They emphasize the top 10 but actually offer the top 23 stories, beginning with Obama’s June speech "pledging a new beginning in Muslim/U.S. relations." Of that, the Springfield News-Leader wrote:

Obama extended a hand to the Islamic world in a speech in Cairo while quoting from the Quran, the Gospel of Matthew and the Talmud, the collection of Jewish law.

"So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity," Obama said in the speech. "And this cycle of suspicion and discord must end."

Time Magazine has its Top 10 Religion Stories for 2009, although they are more topics than stories.

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty offers the top 10 religious liberty stories of 2009 (in reverse order). Some are stores in the journalistic sense. But as with Time, most are topics attended by brief essays. Number one, for example, is "New President brings change, but delays some tough decisions."

Catholic News Service tells us 2009 was a busy year for the pope, reviewing those top stories, albeit without enumeration. Not critical reviews, BTW.

The London Telegraph's Martin Beckford (religion and social affairs correspondent) has his own Top religion stories of 2009. In his view, "Following a year of turmoil in the worldwide Anglican Communion over women bishops and homosexuality, over the past 12 months most of the newsworthy events seem to have involved the Roman Catholic Church and Britain."

Regret The Error's Typo of the Year (amid its top corrected journalistic errors of 2009) is about religion:

The Daily Universe, a student paper at BYU, recalled and trashed 18,000 copies of an edition after discovering a typo. Notably, it was a typo that could have offended the Mormon church. The paper issued a brief apology and also published a lengthy article to explain the error.

That can happen when one substitutes "apostate" for "apostle" thus referring in a photo cutline to a nonexistent Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints group called, "Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates."

Dickson deserved better, don't you think?

Baptist Bloggers sometimes embarrass themselves with verbal brawling, ordinary errors and deception.

But we have seen nothing in BaptistWorld quite like the flood of unmerited derision which pursued Akeya Dickson across the Web after a Washington Post copy editor inserted an error [now corrected] into her story.

Just a little more thought about how large newspapers actually work, and a little less jumping to conclusions, and she would have been spared.

When journalists fumble

Mollie doesn't like it when journalists fumble attribution, putting the words of one organization into the mouth of another.

Good night, Lou

Ambition calls, he says, or did something resembling journalistic standards prevail at last?

Refusing to equate religious fervor with terrorism

Paul Moses writes:

The New York Times carried a profile today of Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old man suspected of a terrorism conspiracy. I admire the way Michael Wilson wrote the piece because it reflects a humility often missing in news coverage: Although the piece is well-reported, it makes clear that much about Zazi is not known, and that he has not been proven guilty of the charges against him. ... The article explores the way Islam played a role in Zazi’s life, but avoids the trap of equating religious fervor with terrorism ... .

Read the entire blog at dotCommonweal.

The straw man profiles [Addendums I & II]

Pastor Johnny M. Hunt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, echoed on twitter pastor and Executive Director of Founders Ministries Tom Ascol's suggestion that Oklahoma Baptist Messenger Editor Douglas Baker "gets it."

"It" is apparently the function and role of Baptist state newspaper journalists, like Baker.

After all, Hunt and Ascol were referring to Baker's Sept. 3 column, which is certainly a critique of the press. It uses a "merciless" 1936 New Yorker profile of Time Inc.'s Henry Luce to build a straw man with which to castigate current-day press, apparently for "'gotcha' and cynical," "slanted," and inaccurate journalism.

To do so Baker fails to properly attribute humorist Wolcott Gibbs' famous parody of Timespeak's topsy-turvy narrative structure. Baker mentions only Harold Ross, Gibbs' editor.

Ross, with his wife Jane Grant founded the New Yorker in 1925 with the goal of creating a sophisticated humor magazine, "and not be edited for the old lady in Dubuque."

Baker offers us what may be that deliberately irreverent magazine's most famous satire as somehow an example of current mainstream journalism profiles. And that's a little off the rails.

Current New Yorker Editor David Remnick does does attribute to Ross the words with which Baker characterizes modern journalistic profiles. Specifically, when accused of malice by Luce, Ross is reported to have said, "you've put your finger on it, Luce. I believe in malice."

Baker pivots off the word "malice" to import the Apostle Paul's admonitions (Eph. 4:31; Col. 3:8; Titus 3:3) against malicious tendencies, which he ascribes to a controversy-loving press:

For what news agency doesn't desire to rid the world of one more charlatan or corrupt preacher intent only on fleecing the flock of God? The profile is often just the tool to do it.

Moving quickly along, as the use of straw man arguments requires, Baker segues from his critique of journalism in general to a critique of Baptist state newspapers. Without offering a single illustrating example or link to one, he writes:

In the Southern Baptist Convention, many believe that fair and balanced reporting has all but disappeared.

Who are the "many"?

No names. No links. No time for that.

Baker has other points to make:

How to maintain legitimate and respectable news organs throughout the SBC seems to be the question of the hour. . . . It now seems that a malicious tone has entered the realm of religious journalism to such a degree that a person can be profiled in a manner that highlights certain sins or character faults absent context and direct reporting required by secular journalistic outlets.

Thus he returns to the generalized malice he ascribes to Ross, and without proof paints it on Baptist journalists. No quoted examples. No links or other evidence.

His criticism of other Baptist journalists also appeared in his first column as editor there, dated July 23, when he wrote:

Over time, Baptist newspapers somewhat deviated from their original purpose of service to local churches toward a more progressive practice of opinion journalism void of a theological worldview which kept them grounded in the practical realities of church life. Through the years, the creeping tides of modern life slowly choked out any semblance of a gospel-centered publication where the challenges of modern life and thought were carefully reported in ways which examined the key facts hidden behind the veil of political and societal diversions.

Again, he supports his assertions about his fellow Baptist journalists with neither quoted text nor links, choosing instead to move from unproven assertion directly to recommendations.

He recommends a journalism that is simultaneously Christian, evangelical, truthful and devoid of whatever it is that he sees as malice. It is difficult to imagine a professional journalist disagreeing with his view that "truth must remain the goal even when the news is less than laudatory."

Note that Baker's first column as editor appeared the week after the Baptist Messenger's publication of a copy of State Representative Sally Kern's “Proclamation for Morality”[.pdf] which had been photoshopped to create the impression that the controversial document had been signed by Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and Secretary of State Susan Savage. Baker had to handle the resulting correction and apology.

One commenter at Baptist Life forums wrote, "Welcome to Oklahoma, Doug. Hope you brought your flame-proof kevlar with you."

Truly, and we wish him well as he attempts to implement his vision of a journalism that is simultaneously Christian, evangelical, surpassingly truthful and devoid of whatever it is that he sees as malice -- standards which forbid resort to undocumented charges.

Addendum I:

Gary at Baptist Life forums observes that "a thoroughly discredited 'quote' attributed to James Madison" is part of a Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee guest editorial published by the Baptist Messenger on July 16.

Wikiquote has the BGCO ERLC Madison "quote" on a list of misattributions. The phrase falsely attributed to Madison is:

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.

Wikiquote says:

• This statement appears nowhere in the writings or recorded utterances of James Madison and is completely contradictory to his character as a strong proponent of the separation of church and state.

As of this writing, the guest editorial's error apparently remains uncorrected.

Addendum II:

We asked. Before writing the original blog, we asked Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt what he meant by "it" his echo of @tomascol's twitter comment that Oklahoma Baptist Messenger Editor Douglas Baker "gets it."

Specifically, we wrote:

@johnnymhunt We seek your insight: bit.ly/6OqRE Please explain what "it" Doug gets.

That wasn't the first time we asked. We had previously written:

RT @johnnymhunt RT @tomascol: A Baptist State Paper editor who gets it http://bit.ly/6OqRE [ It? http://is.gd/2Llgh http://is.gd/2Llku ]

No answer thus far. Just that public declaration of confidence by the president of the SBC.

Catholic University of America student newspaper endorses Obama at Notre Dame

The Tower, the student newspaper at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., wrote Friday:

If Notre Dame has done their job right, students will already be sound in their Catholic beliefs. It should not be an issue where the President stands on his ideas of life. He is coming to speak to students about their role in the world, what they will face when they embark on the next chapter of their lives. More than anything, it is the students’ first test of maintaining a Catholic identity in light of someone who does not share some of their beliefs. There is a way to still maintain a Catholic identity, to reconcile faith, and still listen to the Commander-in-Chief of this great nation.

Read the entire piece here.

Fact-fixing CNN on Notre Dame

One myth-besotted CNN paragraph preoccupied Mollie at GetReligion.

She was addressing the story of South Bend, Indiana Roman Catholic Bishop John D’Arcy's boycott of the Notre Dame graduation ceremonies at which President Barack Obama will be honored.

Let her help you substitute legislative fact for fiction and filter spin out of science here.

Baptist Press kicks the hornets' nest

The Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) Baptist Press (BP) news service stepped on the heels of an enthusiastically received Feb. 6 appearance in North Carolina by Mark Driscoll. They published a critical piece on Feb. 11, while the bloom of that appearance was still on the rose.

The story was "assembled" from a Jan. 9 New York Times Magazine article about the dynamic Seattle pastor, other previously published reactions and some original quotes.

Mark Driscoll

Presented to an audience rich in recently inspired Driscoll enthusiasts under the headline Driscoll's vulgarity draws media attention, it was the equivalent of kicking a hornets' nest.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), which hosted the Feb. 6/7 conference where Discoll spoke, blogged disappointment with the "inaccurate content and harsh tone" of the article.

Ed Stetzer of the SBC's Lifeway Research stepped forward to obliquely defend "my friend Mark Driscoll" from unfortunate coverage in general (BP was mentioned only in comments by others).

Jonathan Merritt was less gentle in his North Carolina Biblical Recorder op-ed piece Unfair, Unbalanced, and Unacceptable. He blistered BP, and also recalled how release of the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative (SBECI) in March, 2008, drew immediate reaction from BP:

“Less than 24 hours after the story appeared in national media, Baptist Press had a story distancing the denomination from the document,” the Christian Index reported. They went on to note that Baptist Press “generated an additional 13 stories over the next 8 publishing days. The majority of those took issue with the topic. . . .” During this time, I left multiple voice mails and sent several emails to BP Editor Will Hall to clarify journalistic inaccuracies an offer the other side of the story, but I received no reply.

"No reply," yet one of the most redeeming values of good American news journalism is communication with the subjects of stories and correction of errors and omissions.

Reply is a newsroom requirement, like the correction of errors.

"No reply" is not an option.

Everyone trained in the field knows that. And experience teaches that prompt reply, and appropriate corrective response when one errs, are both required to protect one's reputation for quality and win community loyalty.

BP appears to have neither replied nor made satisfactory corrections in the earlier case cited by Meritt, and made some changes but offered little response to the Driscoll matter.

Corrective passion flowed into blogs and environments like and including twitter, as it would have to some degree no matter how BP responded. Snowballing blog commentary is summarized by Timmy Brister's' annotated list of selected links.

Amid the fire and brimstone, we did find one comment in defense of BP.

From this old newspaperman's point of view, the story doesn't look malicious, as some seem to us to have implied by calling it a "hit job." Just incomplete and outdated by facts immediately available to both an important part of the audience and perhaps, with some effort, available to the author.

As a result, a vocal segment of the audience felt poorly served. In our opinion, it was, as usually happens with dated, incomplete stories.

In an environment rich in other sources of information, the audience's protest will be corrective. In part because, as they demonstrated, they're no longer simply the audience. They also publish.

Journalism & some journalists are Gaza war casualties

Foreign journalists have been kept out by the Israeli military. The Guardian reports:

Throughout the two-week bombardment of the Gaza Strip most journalists have been kept out by the Israeli government on the pretext of security. And the Israelis are pleased with the results.

Foreign journalists have been forced to report without getting to the detail of what is going on. That meant, at least in the early days of the bombardment, that reporters who would have been in Gaza were instead reporting from Israeli towns and cities under fire from Hamas, and Israeli officials found it easier to get themselves in front of a television camera

Five journalists who were there when the attack began have been killed.

Israel bombed a Gaza City media building. The Committee to Protect Journalists wrote:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked the rooftop of Al-Johara Tower, an eight-story building located in Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, which houses more than 20 international news organizations, according to multiple news outlets.

Al-Jazeera reported that at least one journalist was injured while filing a report from the roof of the building. The journalist was not immediately identified. Staff at Al-Shifa Hospital, where the journalist was taken, said the injuries were minor, according to a statement on Web site of the Iranian Arabic-language Al-Alam TV. Satellite transmission equipment on the roof of the building was also damaged in the attack, the Iranian English-language Press TV said on its Web site.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, defended the strike in an interview with Al-Jazeera, saying that communications equipment in the building could have been used by Hamas.

Reporters Without Borders has issued an appeal to Israel to stop preventing journalists from entering Gaza. It says in part:

In view of the scale of the military operations and the repercussion they are having throughout the world, we believe the Israeli government’s decision to exclude the press from the Gaza Strip is untenable and dangerous.

addendum: alternate sources

Gaza Blogroll: First-person accounts of the conflict in the Gaza Strip recommended by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Twitter search the #Gaza hash tag to follow tagged debate on twitter.

Twitter search the #israel hash tag.

Twitter search the #hammas hash tag.

Reporters Without Borders latest on media exclusion from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli human rights groups blog the impact on civilians in Gaza and in Israel.