Two Cases of Journalistic Oops
Last week, Newsweek said it was “The End Of Christian America,” but this week they are saying “God Is Back.” (HT: A Church for Starving Artists) WOW! – a one week turn around – That’s amazing.
And while you are reading, here is a bit of a historical perspective. The blog author linked here is reviewing a book, The Big Sort, about increasing partisanship in the nation. I like this quote from the book:
Polarization did not come from politicians or the media. Indeed, according to Francia, “elites may be responding to the polarization that exists within the electorate rather than the other way around.” It’s just that in the past three decades, Republicans responded better than Democrats. (126-127)
Anyone who wants to do political action in this nation needs to study that very carefully. Leadership may not be what you think it is.
What Do The New Media Find Interesting About Religion?
Lowell adds: “Man bites dog” will always attract a reporter. This is a few days old now, but we had to say something about it. It seems that Utah Valley University (a state institution, not to be confused with Brigham Young University) held a symposium called ”Mormonism in the Public Mind.” The Boston Globe’s religion reporter, Michael Paulson, was the keynote speaker, and the sessions available included these:
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Richard Bushman, Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University and author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling and Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism;
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Jana Riess, author of Mormonism for Dummies and American Pilgrimage and former Religion Book Review Editor for Publisher’s Weekly;
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Terryl Givens, Bostwick Professor of English at the University of Richmond and author of Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy and The Latter-day Saint Experience in America;
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Claudia Bushman; author of Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America, and Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America
Of all the fascinating options, however, the session that attracted Paulson was the one he called ”What’s It Like to Be A Mormon Progressive?” There he heard from Mormons who appear to be swimming upstream culturally and politically.
For example, a man named Morris Thurston spoke about his Prop 8 experience – not as a supporter of the measure, an activity for which Mormons are now either famous or infamous, depending on one’s view, but for opposing Prop 8 even though he is a Mormon. What Mr. Thurston did, in essence, was write a rebuttal to a controversial and anonymous pro-Prop 8 piece that sought to list some negative consequences if Prop 8 failed.
So why is that so interesting to the Boston Globe religion writer? Well, Mr. Thurston billed himself on his written rebuttal as an “adjunct professor of law at Brigham Young University.” Keep in mind that Mr. Thurston is a retired patent lawyer who taught (or perhaps still teaches) a patent law course at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. He is not a legal expert on anything related to Prop 8 and is no more qualified to comment on that measure than anyone else. But that BYU Law connection made him terribly interesting to the news media, and throughout the debate over Prop 8 we heard the measure’s opponents refer repeatedly to “the BYU professor of law who opposes Prop 8.” One must admit, that description does catch one’s attention. (Note: Morris Thurston and I have corresponded. He has been unfailingly kind and polite to me and I do not doubt his sincerity. I suspect that when he wrote his rebuttal, he did not intend to become a center of controversy. Mr. Thurston later issued a press release stating that his claim to a BYU connection appeared in an early draft of his rebuttal that was not authorized for publication. I am not commenting on his actions, but on Michael Paulson’s journalistic instincts.)
Anyway, that’s how you attract news media attention to religion story. Morris Thurston gets press because he appeared to be “a man biting a dog.” Anything that emphasizes whackiness or internal dissension among religious people will make you famous. We saw this a lot during the Romney campaign. Remember the bizarre interest in Governor Romney’s underwear? As we’ve said many times, we don’t think the news media “gets” religion. Mr. Paulson gives us further evidence.
Posted in News Media Bias, Reading List | 1 Comment » | 
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coltakashi on 20 Apr 2009 at 1:56 pm #
I read the piece that Paulson did about the UVU conference, and the others that he wrote based on his visit to LDS General Conference. He writes a blog on religion for the Boston Globe called “Articles of Faith”. I would judge his understanding (or avoidance of egregious misunderstanding) of Mormonism around an 8 out of 10 based on these pieces, compared to the Salt Lake Tribune’s Peggy Fletcher Stack at 9 out of 10, and a 5 out of 10 for the PBS mini-series on “The Mormons” a couple of years ago. He made a point of saying that Mormon public affairs people were much more helpful, generally, than those from other churches. The summary I have read of the entire swath of presentations was actually pretty interesting and worthwhile (which one would expect from presenters like the Professors Bushman and Professor Givens). Paulson made clear that the guy who disagreed on Prop. 8 was very much swimming against the tide of LDS member opinion.
On the issue specifically of same sex marriage, as someone who has practiced environmental law for over 25 years, I think it is ironic, if not hypocritical, for people who largely are very concerned about avoiding any change to the natural environment, to be nonchalant about promoting a fundamental change in a human social institution like traditional marriage. Either traditional marriage was ordained by the Creator, or it has evolved over the millenia of human development because it has major value to the survival of humanity, take your pick. Either way, traditional marriage has presumptively high value to humankind, so the burden of proof is against anyone who wants to throw away that value on an experiment, where what is at risk is the survival of civilization and all of the things humanity has learned about itself and the world.