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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Last newspaper Religious Affairs writer goes
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Panda
Shipmate
# 2951
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Posted
It was announced in the last few days that the Religious Affairs correspondent for The Times (UK) newspaper has been made redundant, and the position is not being continued. Details.
It was, I admit, news to me that no other national newspapers have such a position anymore, and that The Times is the last to kill it off.
I found Ruth Gledhill a touch sensationalist at times, a bit too heavy on the scary headline at the expense of a truly accurate report. But she was reasonably au fait with the scene, you might say; she more or less understood how the church, and other churches operate so that she knew how to frame a story. And she reported religion, not just Christianity, or the CofE.
She stoutly defends her paper's decision to kill her off, saying,“When I started the job I was asked to take religion out of the sanctuary, and into the general news arena. And in a way you could say it’s a sign of my success that now my job has been made redundant because it’s so much a part of general news now." And, 'the fact [that] Fleet Street no longer has a dedicated religious affairs correspondent is not a sign that the subject has become less important.
"I can see why people might say that but I would say that’s not the case. It’s a sign that religion has become a part of the mainstream,"'
Is it such a sign? War and conflict are pretty mainstream; they've got their own people. Art, film, sports, finance, same again.
Without someone who's reasonably familiar with the territory, I think there's a considerable risk of mis-reporting, due to not being aware of the bigger picture. Confusion in articles about Northern Ireland difficulties, or the difference between Sunni and Shia and why it matters, or even outrage at women being excluded from certain churches, knowing nothing of resolutions.
Or do we (as reasonably religious people) have an over-inflated sense of our own importance? Should we just accept that a lot of what we do and proclaim to be vital looks weird, at best, to a lot of people, and if we can't make it clear without an interpreter or middleman, that's our problem - hopefully for us to solve?
[ 18. May 2014, 17:15: Message edited by: Panda ]
Posts: 1637 | From: North Wales | Registered: Jun 2002
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
As a point of information, Ruth Gledhill is registered on the Ship under her own name, although she hasn't posted for a long time.
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Gareth
Shipmate
# 2494
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Posted
I think it is a sign of the times - not of "creeping secularisation" or a decline in religion or anything else.
It's just people have much less respect for expertise in many areas these days - especially people with decision-making power.
Expertise has a nasty habit of enlightening people who think that something is simple and straightforward; it unveils inconvenient truths; it challenges givens and assumptions.
Some people don't like that. If you've grown comfortable with your ignorance and prejudices about religion, it's not nice to be confronted with information and analysis that contradicts you.
(Hmmm... very cynical of me. I think I'll chill out with a glass of wine and rethink...)
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"Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope."
P. J. O'Rourke
Posts: 345 | From: Chaos | Registered: Mar 2002
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
Panda wrote:
quote:
Or do we (as reasonably religious people) have an over-inflated sense of our own importance? Should we just accept that a lot of what we do and proclaim to be vital looks weird, at best, to a lot of people, and if we can't make it clear without an interpreter or middleman, that's our problem - hopefully for us to solve?
Like everyone else here, I'm probably biased, since the fact that I read the Ship on a regular basis deminstrates that I think religious topics are worthy of serious discussion, even if I don't quite subscribe to the overall Christian consesnus on the Ship.
So, yeah, I'll miss the religion columns. I used to like reading my local paper's version as a kid.
Canada's National Post has a religion feature called Holy Post, but even that seems to be mostly off-the-wire stories with religious themes. But they also devote a relatively large amount of space to faith-orinented topics. They take an overall conservative viewpoint on the world, though their commentary on religious topics does not always follow a party line.
Link didn't work...
Holy Post
[ 18. May 2014, 17:29: Message edited by: Stetson ]
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I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
My default assumption here is to take this as a business decision. The Times somehow decided that having a regular religious columnist cost the paper more than it earned the paper, however that might be measured. Net drag on the bottom line? Away you go.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
You could assume that a more secular society isn't that interested in religious reporting. Or you could assume an internet generation isn't all that interested in newspapers and the newspapers have to keep cutting costs to stay afloat.
I suspect the Ship is not the most unselected group to diagnose this since we are all on the internet. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Garasu
Shipmate
# 17152
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Posted
Is it just a terminology issue? Andrew Brown for The guardian seems to spend most of his time talking about religion*
*Mind you, New scientist goes through phases where it seems to be talking about nothing but religion, albeit with a negative slant...
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"Could I believe in the doctrine without believing in the deity?". - Modesitt, L. E., Jr., 1943- Imager.
Posts: 889 | From: Surrey Heath (England) | Registered: Jun 2012
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
Isn't there an issue with newspapers cutting specialists generally? Ben Golding's Bad Science devotes a chapter to the scientific illiteracy of the media, and the degree to which this allows nonsense to propagate.
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
Ben Golding's Bad Science
Goldacre. Incidentally, it's next to my keyboard as I type.
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Forward the New Republic
Posts: 9131 | From: Ultima Thule | Registered: Jul 2005
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Gareth
Shipmate
# 2494
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
Isn't there an issue with newspapers cutting specialists generally? Ben Golding's Bad Science devotes a chapter to the scientific illiteracy of the media, and the degree to which this allows nonsense to propagate.
Goldacre's position is typical of the dialectic: while his rhetoric is toned down, his thesis is actually more radical: science shouldn't just have a higher status in order to counter what you call "nonsense," it should actually be in control and prevail every time.
He even advocates the scientific method as the basis of policymaking - and has argued the point on R4.
I leave it to Shipmates to judge whether he has a point.
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"Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope."
P. J. O'Rourke
Posts: 345 | From: Chaos | Registered: Mar 2002
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LA Dave
Shipmate
# 1397
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Posted
I regularly read and valued Ruth's work, at least until it disappeared behind the Murdochpress paywall. Sorry to see that she will no longer be writing.
In the States, there are relatively few religion beat writers left anymore. The New York Times has at least one religion writer, Mark Oppenheimer, and others have also contributed to the Saturday column covering such topics. But the Los Angeles Times has no one assigned regularly to religion.
One bright spot are certain denomination-based papers (the National Catholic Reporter is the best example) and various blogs. While the latter sometime suffer from the ills common to all blogs, a few examples are first-rate. Like this one . . .
Posts: 981 | From: Take a guess | Registered: Sep 2001
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CL
Shipmate
# 16145
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LA Dave:
I regularly read and valued Ruth's work, at least until it disappeared behind the Murdochpress paywall. Sorry to see that she will no longer be writing.
In the States, there are relatively few religion beat writers left anymore. The New York Times has at least one religion writer, Mark Oppenheimer, and others have also contributed to the Saturday column covering such topics. But the Los Angeles Times has no one assigned regularly to religion.
One bright spot are certain denomination-based papers (the National Catholic Reporter is the best example) and various blogs. While the latter sometime suffer from the ills common to all blogs, a few examples are first-rate. Like this one . . .
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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"Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ." - Athanasius of Alexandria
Posts: 647 | From: Ireland | Registered: Jan 2011
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Anoyne else remember the Daily Telegraph's Churches Correspondent, Canon DW Gundry, in the 1980s? Not for anything he wrote, just for the fact that his job title and presence seemed reassuringly old-fashioned even then.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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The Silent Acolyte
Shipmate
# 1158
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Posted
quote:
Panda alleges:
Last newspaper Religious Affairs writer goes
To which I say, "Fog in Channel—Continent Cut Off."
quote:
LA Dave sez:
In the States, there are relatively few religion beat writers left anymore. The New York Times has at least one religion writer, Mark Oppenheimer, and others have also contributed to the Saturday column covering such topics. But the Los Angeles Times has no one assigned regularly to religion.
There is still the weekly topical column "House of Worship" on the Op-Ed pages of the Wall Street Journal. And, doesn't Serge Schmemann episodically pop off on religion? I'm thinking Fort Worth, Tulsa, Salt Lake City.
I haven't traveled away from the American coasts recently enough to be certain, but the heartland newspapers used to cover religion consistently in a way that, say, the Washington, DC, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles or San Francisco papers ceased doing years ago.
Posts: 7462 | From: The New World | Registered: Aug 2001
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte:
"Fog in Channel-Continent Cut Off."
So are there any mainstream newspapers on the Continent of Europe (as opposed to the islands!) that have dedicated Religious Affairs writers?
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gareth:
I think it is a sign of the times - not of "creeping secularisation" or a decline in religion or anything else.
I think it may simply be a consequence of declining newspaper circulation and cost-cutting ... which, of course, leads to a vicious spiral!
The BBC still has a dedicated and often excellent religious programme: "Beyond Belief" every Monday afternoon at 4.30 pm on Radio 4.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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LA Dave
Shipmate
# 1397
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Posted
Silent: My hometown paper, the Grand Rapids Press, until recently had a full-time religion editor, Charles Honey, who was great. I think that Charles was the exception rather than the rule, given the large number of churches in Grand Rapids and the fact that it is the world headquarters of the Christian Reformed Church and the home of some seminaries.
I doubt that even flyover land papers do much with religion these days, given the economics of newspapers. Many young reporters (and they are replacing the veterans by the score for economic reasons) are covering several different beats, and just might cover an occasional church story when it pops out at them.
Posts: 981 | From: Take a guess | Registered: Sep 2001
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Gareth
Shipmate
# 2494
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Gareth:
I think it is a sign of the times - not of "creeping secularisation" or a decline in religion or anything else.
I think it may simply be a consequence of declining newspaper circulation and cost-cutting ... which, of course, leads to a vicious spiral!
The BBC still has a dedicated and often excellent religious programme: "Beyond Belief" every Monday afternoon at 4.30 pm on Radio 4.
First, what Leo said.
Second, cost-cutting is a strategic action. When you have to cut costs, you either redesign your organisation in order to maintain your priorities as much as you can, or you effectively cut off limbs.
I doubt that a newspaper or an organisaiton like the BBC hacks away blindly when they need to make cuts - they will do what other organisations do: they start with their core principles and make decisions about what they want to achieve and how, and then make decisions about cuts based on their new strategic plan.
Removing the entire staff from a dedicated department "because cuts" is not a decision driven by money: the process of reviewing priorities is driven by money - but exactly where the axe falls is not.
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"Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope."
P. J. O'Rourke
Posts: 345 | From: Chaos | Registered: Mar 2002
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Oscar the Grouch
Adopted Cascadian
# 1916
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Posted
I hope that this doesn't mean that RG is stopping all reporting and commentating on religious affairs. As much as she used to annoy me sometimes, she also managed to get some good stories. Being hidden behind Murdoch's paywall has not been good for her, I feel.
Perhaps she could go into partnership with Andrew Brown and set up a religious affairs blog, where they could compete to see who could get the best scoop and then they could bicker at one another.
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Faradiu, dundeibáwa weyu lárigi weyu
Posts: 3871 | From: Gamma Quadrant, just to the left of Galifrey | Registered: Dec 2001
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