Back to school [or to church] for media elites?
Wayne Dawkins/Commentary
5/7/2008
NEW YORK -- When it was time for questions at the “Covering Religion” lecture during the Spring Alumni meeting at Columbia J-school, I posed this question to facilitator Ari Goldman: “I’m from a faith group that produced at least five U.S. presidents, yet the group is frequently demonized and caricatured by some in media.
5/7/2008
NEW YORK -- When it was time for questions at the “Covering Religion” lecture during the Spring Alumni meeting at Columbia J-school, I posed this question to facilitator Ari Goldman: “I’m from a faith group that produced at least five U.S. presidents, yet the group is frequently demonized and caricatured by some in media.
“My faith group is a ‘kissing cousin’ of the United Church of
Christ, the denomination under fire regarding the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright. Did the media elite demonstrate profound ignorance of
liberal Christianity?”
Goldman’s reply was “no,” big media were not ignorant or clueless in
its general coverage of the Wright firestorm. I followed up because
the reply from the J-school professor and New York Daily News
religion columnist felt like a brush-off. Seemed to me, I said, that
big shots in the press had never heard of liberation theology.
They
might be shocked that Wright echoed the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr.'s 1967 criticism of the way the United States handled the
Vietnam War. OK, said Goldman, I get what you’re asking.
During and after that session, at least five alumni from different
decades pulled me to side to confide that they understood what I was
suggesting. They expressed their frustrations with bad press
behavior when faith intersected with the coverage of politics or
society’s daily rhythms.
It
seems many experienced reporters need to be sent back to Melvin
Mencher’s RW1 [basic Reporting & Writing] class. Professor Mencher
required that students visit churches, synagogues and mosques,
observe, and write about the ways people observe their faith in
worship and beyond.
In his presentation, Goldman stressed the importance of capturing
“ritual moments” of faith groups to enhance storytelling. Today, is
the press doing a good enough job capturing these ritual moments so
reporters can provide context on how American religious leaders
behave?
An endless loop on cable news channels showed Wright’s “God damn
America” snippet. For his blip of rage the media elite framed
Trinity UCC as a hateful cult that includes a Democratic
presidential candidate in its membership. Did the media pack know
Trinity was one of the UCCs notorious for its inclusiveness, not its
alleged hatefulness?
In 2004, CBS and NBC
rejected
UCC advertisements
because they announced that their congregations welcomed people was
all ethnicities and also welcomed gay, lesbian and trans gendered
worshippers. Too controversial, the networks said.
I recognized the rituals of the UCC because they are very similar to
those of my denomination, the Unitarians and Universalists.
That faith group includes John and John Quincy Adams, Thomas
Jefferson, Millard Fillmore and William Howard Taft [the only
president who also served as a U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice].
Garrison Keillor of “A Prairie Home Companion”
jokes [I think he’s joking] that UCC means “Unitarians Considering
Christ.”
The
UUs and UCCs speak a common language with three other faith groups,
the Quakers, Reform Jews and Bahai’s. Could most members of the
hyper-secularized media elite understand what we say or believe?
After watching the way they covered the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story,
I’m wary.
Send those journalists
back to school, or better yet to churches, synagogues or mosques.
The writer is editor of the Black Alumni Network newsletter [Columbia University Journalism] www.jrn.columbia.edu
The writer is editor of the Black Alumni Network newsletter [Columbia University Journalism] www.jrn.columbia.edu