[Magdalen] A California court has been asked to block the sale of St Jame...

[Jim Guthrie]

From: Sally Davies

>Unless I missed something, the issue isn't about whether the journalists
>are right or left wing, whatever that might mean, but about whether they
>talk rubbish about church affairs or put their own slant out there as fact.

>Jim G? Would you agree?

People are often ignorant about faiths other than their own -- we often see it 
here on this list (like lumping together vastly different churches that include 
"Methodist" or "Presbyterian" in their names) and sometimes within their own 
denomination as well. We're more or less self-selected here and more 
knowledgeable about Episcopal Church affairs,but I'll bet that most people in 
our own parishes are not near as knowledgeable --or even interested in the 
things we discuss every day here. What's an outsider like a news reporter to do?

Of course there's an additional element serious news of religion demonstrates 
the maxim that "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished."  -- and no other news in Cover s 
story about Church A and people of Church B, C, and D will send hate mail. 
Newspaper editors thus learn to avoid any decent coverage at all (The New York 
Times is an exception). But smaller paper publishers have an aversion to a half 
dozen poison pen letters on EVERY serious religion story that end in "Cancel My 
Subscription."  Editors learn that they can tell Christians by their "Love" so 
simply avoid the topic as best they can, save for the occasional scandal.

And even then, they get excoriated, like the Roman Catholic Bishops who 
denounced the media for mentioning pedophile priests.

Of course, back in the day before journalism degrees when the main criteria for 
hiring reporters was the ability to write,most reporters cut their eye teeth on 
the police beat -- learning quickly the depths of street mayhem and despair. 
That often led to that healthy reporter's cynicism that led for really good 
writing. Part of that process was learning that clergy were generally 
ineffective in their influence over any of that mayhem, no matter how good a 
game they talked. That bred a special sense of hostility toward religion from 
any reporter who had a layer of compassion underneath that layer of cynicism.

Martin writes:

>> The English "Ruth Gledhill" is hardly a right wing conservative.

I could agree with that if you'd concede she's simply incompetent when it comes 
to writing about religion or Anglicanism.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie