Copyright 1999 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.

COMMENTARY: PROMISE WITHOUT DELIVERANCE IN RELIGION JOURNALISM
by Allan R. Andrews
American Reporter Correspondent

The Religion Newswriters Association, a national group for religion writers and editors, boasts upwards of 250 members. As far as I can tell, however, the RNA, unlike similar associations for specialists in journalism, operates no job bank for its membership (its newsletter may occasionally post a job ad).

In the two-year period I've been checking, I've read numerous claims suggesting that religion news is hot, and that editors across the country are poised to put such specialists on their reporting staffs; indeed, I made a similar suggestion myself in a column hinting that "journalism is getting religion" at a time when ABC-TV's managing editor Peter Jennings took the lead and hired Peggy Wehmeyer to spearhead the network's religion coverage.

In that same period, the PBS program, "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly," has been a surprising hit for public broadcasting, and both the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle have been singled out for their outstanding religion sections.

Indeed, last year, the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum helped take the Cleveland Plain Dealer to task when local clergy complained of the newspaper's tepid religion coverage. The Plain Dealer responded in good civic journalism fashion by developing a commendable religion section.

Contrast these events with a recent study of the relationship between religion journalism and the education of journalists that makes this startling observation: "the overwhelming majority of media outlets in the United States have no exclusive religion reporter on staff."

The best estimate is that of the approximately 1500 daily newspapers published in the United States, fewer than 50 have reporters on the religion beat full time.

Nevertheless, in its 1999 "Local News Handbook," a report to the profession at large, the American Society of Newspaper Editors concludes: "Religion news is hot."

Religion is making news, but clearly it remains the domain of a few specialists, and the nation's editors show little or no interest in putting reporting resources into covering religion.

In that recent study called "The Study of Religion and the Education of Journalists," Arizona State University professor Eric Kevin Gormly demonstrated that journalism schools in the U.S. are failures at preparing journalists to cover religion.

Gormly's rather startling conclusion after his survey of journalism school administrators, is: "The administrators overwhelmingly believed that journalists were leaving school without enough basic knowledge in religion." Then Gormly adds that several administrators anecdotally concluded, "it is someone else's to deal with."

(I've informally suggested to Gormly that he seek to determine the extent of religion knowledge among journalism school administrators.)

Consistent evidence suggests readers of newspapers think more religion news should make the daily report. According to a decade-old study by B. J. Hubbard, readers rank religion news ahead of such traditional newspaper news categories as food, entertainment, sports, arts and personal advice. Only education news, health news and business news were ranked ahead of religion news.

Despite those rankings, it remains highly unlikely that any working editor would replace a breaking sports or entertainment story with a breaking religion story.

Gormly's study reports that "many editors and news directors cast a blind eye toward religion, seeing it as soft, irrelevant and non-objective."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer -- and several other newspapers -- may have dressed up their religion coverage, but most of it still marginalizes religious thinking in the public arena.

Although neither of them shows appreciable insight into the problem, two critics have a go at poor religion coverage in the latest edition of Brill's Content magazine.

Jeff Cohen, director of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, argues that the media pays an inordinate amount of attention to the extreme conservative end of the religion spectrum, citing the frequency with which Jerry Falwell is given a platform. Cohen notes that the "religious left" -- actually more of the mainstream of American religion -- goes unnoticed and uncovered.

In contrasting defense, Jonah Goldberg, editor of the National Review Online, trots out the conservative complaint that the left has sanitized religion in the public square and belittled those who think religiously, and he makes a fair implication that The New York Times is a trend-setter in this approach.

Both writers make valid points, but their exercise, I fear, merely underscores the problem of pitting extremes against one another in a competitive battle for air-time or newshole space. With the tired stance of entertaining pundits, Cohen and Goldberg stake out their political ground and come close to mimicking those they criticize by reducing religion to political ideology.

We don't see anyone in the media seriously taking Pat Buchanan's or Jesse Jackson's theology apart, or challenging Jerry Falwell's dispensationalist fundamentalism or analyzing Father Andrew Greeley's secularized gospel.

Religion news is hot in the same way that "Touched by an Angel" or "Seventh Heaven" is a hot television commodity. Given the typical longevity of a prime-time TV series and the fickleness of the advertising dollar, hot falls to cold quicker than a hockey puck.

Authentic religion coverage requires investigation beyond a sociological or political barometer. Genuine religion coverage contends with convictions and ideas that not only try the soul but also define a large portion of what we reckon to be reality.

In that regard, contemporary religion journalism is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm.

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