The Incomparable Mencken
As part of my preparation to submit a proposal for a religious biography of H. L. Mencken, I ran across a back issue of Menckeniana which had Jonathan Yardley‘s talk at the 2010 Mencken Day. The book...
View ArticleDo Bishops Use A Different Standard from Pollsters?
Michael New complains that the Pew poll on Roman Catholics in the U.S. does not distinguish between average and serious church members: The “Public Religion Research Institute” released a fact sheet a...
View ArticleSense and More Sense
This may explain the appeal of the English, especially when they can see through the bombast of American exceptionalism under the cover of religious zeal: Much as we all admire the United States and...
View ArticleReporting as Cheerleading
Here’s another sign that the world is not going to the secularist dogs: the Boston Globe has started a website devoted to covering Roman Catholicism. Here’s one early story about the effort (and...
View ArticleThe New Republic Is Dead. . .
Long live the New New Republic. I remember where I was when I heard that Mike Schmidt was retiring from playing third base for the Phillies. I was in the bedroom of our Wheaton, Illinois high rise...
View ArticleJournalists and Saints Together
Push back on questioning David Daleiden’s explanation of his Planned Parenthood videos got me thinking — it sometimes happens — about the ethics of journalism. One of the strongest pushes came from...
View ArticleDoes Anyone Remember Claudette Colvin?
That’s Colvin, not Calvin. She was the fifteen-year old African-American girl who could have been Rosa Parks. Other African-Americans had previously refused to give their seats to white passengers,...
View ArticleIndignity Unbecoming
One more small yelp about Christians spotting media bias. Alan Jacobs faults journalists for improperly interpreting Pope Francis’ declaration of mercy for women who have had abortions: Pope Francis...
View ArticleOp-Ed 101
Ross explains his credentials: A columnist has two tasks: To explain and to provoke. The first requires giving readers a sense of the stakes in a given controversy, and why it might deserve a moment of...
View ArticleIronic?
When the studios release Spotlight for viewing at the nation’s theaters, the Vatican cracks down on journalists: The criminal charges against the two Italian journalists boil down to this: they...
View ArticleJournalists and their Discontents
With the Vatican prosecuting journalists for publishing leaked information, Terry Mattingly thinks the pope may have some lessons for the press. First Pope Francis: The free press, secular and also...
View ArticleTerry Mattingly is Tightening My Jaws
Mr. Mattingly’s point, as someone with journalistic credibility, is to point out how journalists get religion stories wrong. I get it. Reporters make mistakes. Worse, they have bias. But what if Mr....
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It’s Still Not 1968
Is this why Hillary Clinton will bring Bill back to the White House? It’s worth repeating: there is no precedent in modern history for such a mass display of disunity by elected delegates at a national...
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The Trump Effect
Have journalists figured out that religious celebrities don’t speak for the religious? The evangelical left is preaching to its enrollment: “I’m ready to admit we’re a group of leaders without...
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This IS White Normativity
Maybe not, but who can imagine that regeneration washes away the perspective that comes with being a white man? Joe Carter, for instance, wrote a series on Christian journalism for the gospel allies...
View ArticleFollow the Parents
Sometimes I wonder if journalists who cover the virus actually believe the narrative that leads to panic (which means they are as gullible as the fear-driven Trump voters) or are cynically reporting...
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