What is it about religion reporters for the major networks and news services? Gang (i.e., you reporters out there), I don't expect you to be objective or that your derision for and/or being utterly befuddled by the Catholic Church's moral stances won't leak through in your reporting. (After all, how can you understand another's position when you won't even engage it on their terms?) But to make facile and/or utterly incorrect assertions when you're supposed to report facts is just plain stupefying.
Case in point from REUTERS: "The 'culture of life' is a phrase covering the Church's opposition to abortion.
No! Well, yes and no. Yes, it contains the Church's opposition to the willful destruction of unborn life in the womb. But it is so much more. To the reporter: Was your deadline so tight that you couldn't have easily reworded this to make it more accurate?
Go ahead, say I'm getting worked up about nothing, but words are important. Heresies are built on words. Orwelian societies are built on words. We need more not less accuracy from our news reporters because, otherwise, how can we have a properly informed discussion about the issues and how can we make a correspondingly informed decision based on those discussions? And now more than ever, we need informed discussions and decisions. Yet our Fourth Estate is failing in their duty to us -- yes, their duty -- in this respect.
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