06/24/01
News about the news
There’s a little scuffle brewing in the news biz, and though you
might not hear about it, you could be greatly affected.
That’s because, hidden deep inside the more visible situation
is a cultural shift.
ABC News (“More People Get Their News From ABC News Than From
Any Other Source”) has terminated the reporter it had assigned,
since 1994, to cover religion.
ABC was the only network to have its own religion reporter—recognizing
the important, if not well-understood, roles religion plays in
today’s culture. That was good news, while it lasted. The bad
news is that such “content” will now be provided by a third-party
organization unconnected with ABC.
Because where you get your news may be as important as the news
you get.
“Content,” by the way, is the up-and-coming description of what
you see and hear, especially on broadcast, cable and Web-based
media. Providing “content” to fill the great and gaping maw of
a 24-hour information/entertainment media is a staggering task.
It’s part of the reason for the growing number of “unscripted”
and “reality” shows.
But back to that cultural sea-change.
When such vital news and information is provided by a separate
organization—in this case, a Web-based group called beliefnet.com—it
opens the door to abuses since what remains of secular journalistic
integrity and responsibility is more easily overlooked.
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has already
challenged ABC’s beliefnet.com connection, charging that the content
provider has an anti-Catholic bias. Beliefnet.com has denied the
charge. The organization recently has offered to carry at least
one Catholic New World article on efforts to bring religious values
into film and TV.
This is not so much a knock on beliefnet.com as it is about the
lack of value secular media places on the role of religion in
society.
So perhaps more important than the surface skirmish is the acknowledgement
that major news media, which increasingly are becoming the primary
sources of information to an increasingly less-knowledgeable populace,
are moving away from—or trivializing—religion’s role.
Since American culture seems slavishly centered these days on
what passes for “news,” that’s a shift which must be recognized.
Chicago’s secular media, especially TV and daily newspapers, have
a better though incomplete sense of faith’s role. Still, coverage
is too often situational instead of reflecting a much greater
good. Focus is placed on occasions when faith’s standards are
in opposition to what are perceived as “community standards” instead
of understanding the role religion has to be counter-cultural.
Such coverage, however, is to be expected. That, after all, is
the “secular” role of the secular media.
More important, perhaps, it ought to remind us, the church, of
our role to provide countering information where necessary. Toward
that end, the church offers the pulpit and parish publications
for local communication, and The Catholic New World, Chicago Catolico
and “Catholic Community of Faith” on radio, “Sanctuary” on TV
and other efforts at proving faithful “content” to the Chicago
area.
All this is a way, also, of introducing another evolutionary change
in your Catholic New World.
Beginning with this issue, our “entertainment” pages are being
enlarged and renamed “media/culture” and will promote such information
from a Catholic perspective. This issue, for instance, in addition
to the usual listings, we offer a report and recent talk by Cardinal
George on American culture, and book reviews. Check out the media/culture
section, Pages 24-27.
Over the next few issues, we’ll revamp the way we present radio
and television and Web-based programming, providing, where possible,
opportunities for more information such as Websites. Columns reflecting
how Christians should deal with the changing culture also will
be included.
Watch for it. And, as usual, we hope for your comments.
Tom Sheridan
Editor and General Manager
Send your comments to Tom Sheridan
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