I found somebody doing the thinking about religion and journalism. His name is Jeff Sharlet. He co-founded a site called Killing the Buddha, which I have known about for years, and sort of drifts in and out of my awareness.
He also helps run a site called The Revealer, which is miles ahead of the kind of article collection I'm doing here.
From the About Us section:
The Revealer is a daily review of religion in the news and the news about religion. We're not so much nonpartisan as polypartisan -- interested in all sides, disdainful of dualistic arguments, and enamored of free speech as a first principle.... We begin with three basic premises: 1. Belief matters, whether or not you believe. Politics, pop culture, high art, NASCAR -- everything in this world is infused with concerns about the next. As journalists, as scholars, and as ordinary folks, we cannot afford to ignore the role of religious belief in shaping our lives. 2. The press all too frequently fails to acknowledge religion, categorizing it as either innocuous spirituality or dangerous fanaticism, when more often it's both and inbetween and just plain other. 3. We deserve and need better coverage of religion. Sharper thinking. Deeper history. Thicker description. Basic theology. Real storytelling.
This is an observatory already set up in the direction I'm just squinting in. Quasi-journalists unafraid of religion in news media, but not prostrate before sectarian interests. Give it the old eyeball whydoncha.
2 comments:
I tried looking at onreligion.com and following all the links, but it was unsatisfying, like how you think a puffy "diet" desert might taste okay, but even as you get the fork out, you know you are being willfully naive.
Although I am envious when people beyond the age of 25 pick up some instruments and make a CD. I aspire to that kind of gumption.
Oh, that other thing you mention? The clear one? I have no idea what you're talking about.
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