Faith
and the Media
I come to you tonight not as an academic or a religion scholar, but
as one who often has been in the trenches of America religious life. In
my 17 years of covering religion, I've learned more about Muslims from
my time around a Muslim family's dinner table and from following their
daughters to school than I did ever reading textbooks on Islam. My real
understanding of issues like homosexuality in the church came from my time
hanging out in a small Ohio community deeply divided by the issue. And
my knowledge about suffering and the will of God was formed not only by
my own life, I should add, but through my interviews with three generations
of a devout Southern Baptist family suffering from the devastating effects
of AIDS.
My job over these years has been to translate those stories from the
trenches into a language that a mass audience can understand. To do that,
I've had to have a foot in both cultures--two very different cultures,
the culture of network media and the culture of American religious life.
I probably don't have to tell any of you here tonight that the two cultures
have languages all of their own. My producer might ask, "Did you get enough
V roll and enough sound bite to cut a minute 30 net sound?" The next moment
I might be interviewing a person of faith, asking, "How has your walk with
the Lord been affected by the way you structure your devotional time?"
Neither side understands the other, but, you see, I'm bilingual, although
sometimes that has gotten me in trouble.
Like the time when I was working at the ABC affiliate in Dallas, reporting
on a group of Salvadoran political refugees who were illegally escaping
through a church-run underground railroad to Toronto. A group of Quakers
in Toronto were preparing a safe house for the Salvadorans, who were kind
of sneaking through the Dallas airport. I was just going to get there and
get a shot of them, to visually show that this was actually happening.
They were so friendly: they said, "Get on the plane and come with us."
I jumped on the plane, flew to Toronto.
My job as a reporter was to get all the right pictures, get the right
story, interview the people, but I wanted to beat them to the safe house
because I wanted to get pictures of them coming in. You know, in television
you have to structure all this. These refugees--all of them were men--had
been seriously threatened in the civil war there and no one knew if they
were even going to get out safely. The Quakers certainly weren't expecting
us there. Since I had to get just the right shot and I had to hurry, I
didn't have time to talk to these Quaker women, so I ran to the front of
the house and I yelled to my crew--who, remember, only speak TV language--"Quick,
shoot them before they walk in the front door." I'll never forget that.
I thought those women were either going to pass out or knock me over the
head.
I started my career in television news mainly
because I was so frustrated by the consistent lack of religion coverage
that I was seeing in the media.
So how did I get here, into this world of television reporting and religion
? Well, I'll tell you a little bit about me personally. I started my career
in television news mainly because I was so frustrated by the consistent
lack of religion coverage that I was seeing in the media. I thought journalists
were out of touch with the spiritual religious dimension of people in the
community they covered. Now, I wasn't raised myself to be particularly
sensitive to religion. My mother was a non-practicing Jewish refugee from
Nazi Germany. My father was a sometimes practicing Christian Scientist,
which meant sometimes I could get Tylenol for a headache and sometimes
I couldn't. I can literally count on one hand the number of times I entered
a church.
But in college, like many young people, I began asking big questions
about life, like, "What am I supposed to be doing with my life?" "Is this
really all there is--just waiting for parties on the weekend?" "What difference
does my existence really make and what happens when I die?" That was a
time in my life when I was seriously contemplating those issues. It's hard
for anyone to ask those kinds of questions without thinking about God or
whether there is a God or any transcendent being that makes sense out of
life.
What I was surprised to discover on my own spiritual journey was that
there were many--in fact, millions of people--like me on this spiritual
search. The answers that people were finding to those questions in life
often determined how they related to people, who they married, what careers
they chose, how they voted, and most importantly it affected how they coped
with life's disasters and triumphs, the very kinds of things that make
the news.
And yet, as a journalism student at the University of Texas, I saw that
this dimension of people's lives was noticeably absent in most serious
news coverage, especially on television--unless, of course, there was a
story about a strange cult, priests who molest young boys, or bomb-throwing
Muslims. I'm not saying those things aren't news, but if that's all you
see, we're in trouble because it's not very representative of what's really
happening in the faith community, as many of you know.
I've always said that if you were an alien
who landed on this planet and wanted to get a picture of American life,
you would never know by watching television news that 58% of Americans
say religion is very important in their lives.
Although there have been some slight signs of improvement in the last
several years, especially in print, there's still a huge void when it comes
to religion reporting. ABC is still the only network in the United States
with a full-time religion beat. That's very sad. It's not something I'm
real proud of. I've always said that if you were an alien who landed on
this planet and wanted to get a picture of American life, you would never
know by watching television news that 58% of Americans say religion is
very important in their lives, 64% believe that religion can answer all
and most of society's problems, and 40% in our country attend church or
synagogue weekly. In Canada, I understand that it's 40% attend at least
once a month. But in 1997, out of 18,000 evening news stories, fewer than
300 dealt with religion. Every other human endeavour is covered ad nauseam
by us--politics, medicine, business, foreign policy, and yes, even sex.
But when it comes to religion, one of my favourite journalists, Bill Moyers,
put it well when he said, "There is no room at the inn."
Author and historian Gary Wills criticized academics for ignoring the
120 million people or so in our country who regularly practice their religion,
but the criticism could just as easily be leveled at journalists. Says
Wills: "It is careless to keep misplacing such a large body of people."
He goes on to say that "one could hardly guess that nothing has been more
stable in our history, nothing less budge-able, than religious belief and
practice. Religion does not shift or waver; the attention of its observers
does."
The reason that the media must pay attention
to religion is, first of all, because many of the issues dividing us right
now are moral and religious issues.
So why should we cover religion? Well, I'm going to give you some of
my own ideas, and this is obviously a very simple treatment of a complex
issue. Obviously the reason that the media must pay attention to religion
is, first of all, because many of the issues dividing us right now are
moral and religious issues. Think about it. In our country, President Clinton
and the scandal of the White House, about morality, the partial-birth abortion
controversy, assisted suicide, treatment of illegal aliens, the character
of politicians, gay marriage, prayer in school--the list goes on and on.
In order to fully understand the debate around these issues and the people
at the centre of these issues, we must fully explore the religion angle
or, at least, empathize and understand the beliefs that drive many of the
people behind some of these issues.
Plus, almost every social problem in our country--and, I'm sure, yours
as well--juvenile crime, teen pregnancy, hunger and homelessness, are currently
being addressed somewhere by some religious group. How is it that these
stories are constantly in the news but you don't hear from a religious
leader, you don't hear from the people that are out there in the trenches
making a very big difference?
If we're going to be journalists who reflect
our culture accurately, we must find creative ways to tell the story of
the powerful role faith plays in our culture. Plus, it's good for the ratings.
If we're going to be journalists who reflect our culture accurately,
we must find creative ways to tell the story of the powerful role faith
plays in our culture. To me, there is no bigger story. And it really isn't
difficult to do these stories. - Plus, to be practical about it, it's good
for the ratings. I mean, there are people out there who care about this
stuff. There's a huge untapped audience if you do these stories right,
if you really tap into the passion of religion. To me it has all the essential
elements--drama, conflict, passion, intensity, transcendence.
And another good reason is for covering religion, especially if you
have a religion beat and a religion reporter, is that you get a lot of
great exclusives. Let me give you some examples.
In 1973, Roe versus Wade was the landmark abortion decision in the United
States. Norma McCorvey was Roe; when she became a born-again Christian
she flipped sides, totally changed her story. Well, this was a huge news
event. Who did she call? Who did she give the exclusive to? Us. Why? Because,
by having a full-time religion beat and religion reporter, she trusted
that we would be able to tell her story accurately. So that was a great
coup for us at ABC.
Another example. I don't know if you followed the Reggie White, the
Green Bay Packers linebacker who got in all kinds of trouble in the United
States a couple months ago for comments he had made that were very politically
incorrect. Everyone in the media wanted him. He's a very religious man.
Who did he call for the exclusive? Us.
And then there was the biggest story of all--the Iowa septuplets. Everybody's
scrambling to cover the story. You've never seen anything like it in that
little town in Iowa. The couple who had these babies were deeply religious
people. They didn't want the media attention. But they felt that God wanted
them to talk, tell their story once about what He had done in their lives.
Who did they choose to go with? Us. And me in particular, since they had
known my track record in covering religion and understanding stories like
this. We did a whole hour special about these babies coming home, which
was the most highly rated Prime Time Live show of the year. My goal as
a religion reporter, and what they entrusted me with, was the sacredness
of their story.
What you can do in religion reporting is take
an issue about seven babies being born and deal with some profound questions
about life, meaning, transcendence, belief.
There's a lot of debate around their story. All the pundits said they
should have aborted these babies, that they were selfish. There were many
people in the media who didn't understand how these people thought and
lived. My job wasn't to be their PR people or to tell just the faith angle,
but to intelligently and empathetically and accurately portray who these
people were and what these kinds of issues mean in our society and how
we can look at them. What I really had fun with--what you can do in religion
reporting--is take an issue about seven babies being born and deal with
some profound questions about life, meaning, transcendence, belief. In
other words, there's a powerful religion angle in what you'd think is not
a religion story.
In the story, we were able to raise three or four very heavy issues.
It doesn't mean we have the answers to all of them, like why did it work
for her and not others, but even people in the secular community responded
incredibly to that. They said, "We may not believe, but thank you so much
for courageously taking on those issues that we all wonder about." That's
one example of how you can take a big news story and highlight a religion
angle.
I mentioned earlier that I've been covering religion for 17 years, the
last four and a half at ABC. What I'm seeing personally that concerns me
the most for our culture is what I call the great divide between the secular
and the religious. In the world of religion, there does seem to be an intensifying
of the spiritual search. All you have to do is look at how many books there
are on the best seller list on spirituality. Inside Judaism, for example,
which is largely secular, there is a real spiritual renewal going on, and
that's across the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox branches. People are
looking for spiritual connections to their faith traditions. The Evangelical
movement, where independent churches and mega churches are striving to
make God relevant in contemporary life, are thriving in our country. And
certainly among America's growing but small population of Muslims there's
an effort underway to find meaningful ways of spiritual expressions in
everyday life.
The answers that technology and science have provided and the abundance
of gadgets and things that materialism affords us have fallen short of
meeting our deepest longings. Almost everybody agrees with that. Add to
that the mobility of society, people lacking roots and breakdown of the
family, and we find that people are hungry for meaningful connections.
On the way up here I was reading the galley of a book that a man named
Don Eberly, who is a big proponent of restoring a civil society. In the
book he says:
"Our nation has had great success in building military, economic and
administrative structures and systems, but Americans feel helpless by comparison
in confronting problems that are inherently social and moral. Today citizens
are forced to confront conditions that have little to do with the state
of national security and a lot to do with the state of their own souls.
In the most fundamental way, Americans seem to be groping for direction
and purpose in their lives."
I think all of this spiritual search that I'm talking about is happening
in the context of another culture, which I find increasingly secular, increasingly
materialistic and numb to spiritual sensitivity. Yale Law School professor
Stephen Carter calls it a culture of disbelief. In his book by the same
name he outlines the dangers of a culture where the elite institutions
of media, education, government and the courts treat religion with a smug
arrogance, an attitude that seems to say, "Anyone who really believes this
stuff and practices it, too, is either uneducated, misled, or maybe even
dangerous."
Sociologist Peter Berger describes the dilemma this way: If Indians
are the most religious people and Swedes the least religious, we are a
nation of Indians governed by Swedes.
What concerns me some branches in religious
culture are becoming even more insulated, more fortress minded and, in
some cases, hostile and antagonistic towards the secular world.
What concerns me about this is that as the religious population reacts
to the secular culture--as they see secular values threatening their own
values--I see that some branches in religious culture are becoming even
more insulated, more fortress minded and, in some cases, hostile and antagonistic
towards the secular world. Look at how far we've gone in some of our abortion
protests; that would be an extreme example. And when that happens, the
misunderstanding and stereotypes that the secular world holds of the religious
culture grows even more grossly exaggerated and what you end up with--which
I see all over--is a kind of tribalization or "culture war," as some would
call it.
Many of you are probably familiar with the Walt Disney boycott. I work
for Disney--Disney owns ABC. The Southern Baptist convention, which is
the largest Protestant denomination in our country, decided to boycott
Disney for reasons they thought were very reasonable. Well, I don't know
if any of you saw the media reaction to it, but you would have thought
these two groups were on completely different planets. I mean the Baptists
were made to look like complete total buffoons. Whether you agree with
them or not, there was no analysis or taking of them seriously at all.
It was like they were swamp people down there in Mississippi who didn't
know what they were doing. One very respectable newspaper had a cartoon
that had Mickey Mouse and Pluto holding hands--they were gay--and coming
out of the trees were these Ku Klux Klan white-hooded looking people with
clubs. In the cartoon, Mickey and Pluto were saying, "Oh, oh, here come
the Southern Baptists."
That's a good example of this gross misunderstanding by two completely
different cultures. The Baptists were reacting to things on Walt Disney
and ABC that were very threatening to their religious values. There really
could be some dialogue, but there wasn't.
You also saw it in things like Promise Keepers. When Promise Keepers
first appeared in the country, the media thought it was the most dangerous
cult that ever hit America. It was like, "Oh my God, what are we going
to do with these people? They're tyrannizing women, they're abusing their
children." It was absurd, the lack of understanding between these two groups.
I think the media has a tremendous opportunity
and responsibility to slow down this culture war.
I think the media has a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to
slow down this cultural tribalization, this culture war, by doing stories
that enlighten, not stereotype and inflame, and stories that increase understanding,
not increase fear.
Another example of this is the issue of education and public schools.
In our country, and probably here, too, nowhere is the battlefield more
inflamed than in the public schools. We're hearing it constantly. Religion
in schools, prayer in schools, shooting in schools, the moral breakdown
of teenagers. Many times the people who are religious in the schools, trying
to bring back morals or bring back prayer--whatever it is they want--are
demonized and seen as very dangerous and threatening to democracy and freedom.
This was getting very heated a few years ago and I decided do a story.
Instead of the big issue, I took two women on opposite sides and let them
tell their stories in a way where you could empathize with both women and
you could put yourself in both of their shoes and understand what this
debate was really about through their eyes. One little way you can do a
religion story that tells the story, but doesn't create more divisiveness.
It was a story about conflict and debate. Usually in the media is looking
for things that are unusual or different or conflictual, and there is a
place in religion reporting for stories that are good, especially as conflict
and problems become more the norm. In our country, social problems are
constantly in the news and one of the things we started doing at ABC were
segments called "Solutions." This is a great place for religion reporting
because what we found was religious groups are doing a very good job, in
some quarters, of solving social problems. Obviously, they can't do it
by themselves, but there are even new laws passed like charitable choice,
which means government funding can actually go to religious groups that
are doing a better job than the government of treating homelessness, welfare
to work, all kinds of things like that.
In other words, there is a way to make positive news interesting and
to still have that "edge" that we look for in the media. One of the ways
we did it--and you can only do so many of these; pretty soon they all blur
and start looking alike. You know, they kind of tease me at ABC sometimes,
"Oh, here's another do-gooder story, one more church doing one more good
thing for somebody." So you try to make them different and as provocative
you can inside reality.
Even though religion permeates so much of what
we cover, [journalists] easily dismiss it as too personal. Funny how we
call religion personal, and yet we cover every detail of famous people's
sexual lives. Please, let's look at this Viagra story; how much more personal
can we get?
Why do journalists keep missing the religion story? Another very complicated
question which I kind of hate to touch, but I'll try. I think we miss the
religion angle because we're uncomfortable with it. As journalists, we
are taught the language of scandal, politics and policy, but not of religion.
Somehow we've developed the strange idea that separation of church and
state means separation of church and press. Even though religion permeates
so much of what we cover, we easily dismiss it as too personal. Funny how
we call religion personal. I hear many journalists say that it's too personal,
that's kind of your private personal life, and yet we cover every detail
of famous people's sexual lives. Please, let's look at this Viagra story;
how much more personal can we get? Erection has become a common household
word in our country, probably here too. I think we miss important religion
stories by dismissing it as too personal.
Take the story several years ago of Marine Captain Scott O'Grady. The
Bosnian Serbs shot down his plane and he survived six days in enemy territory
and evaded capture. The entire nation, the entire world, was captivated.
The question people wanted answered, the big news story was, "Now that
you're back and you survived, tell us how you survived. How did you even
make sense of this?" Captain O'Grady tried, but the media didn't listen.
When I was watching some of the reports, I was so amazed that I actually
ordered up a transcript of one of them. I'd like to read a few of the lines.
This was a major network morning program; I won't say which one. Here is
this young Captain Scott O'Grady who's defied all odds and the big interview
is about how did you do it.
Interviewer: "It's just amazing that you actually survived
that initial impact. What happened? What do you remember when it first
hit?"
Captain O'Grady: "Well, basically, when it first hit,
I knew exactly what it was and the whole thing is that your connection
to God, as far as talking to Him, opens up real quick. If it wasn't for
God, I wouldn't have survived that. If it wasn't for Him, I wouldn't have
even been able to get out of the airplane. And if it wasn't for God, the
parachute wouldn't have even functioned. So throughout this whole course
of events, if it wasn't for God, I wouldn't be here.
Interviewer: "Well, it was obviously a split second decision
on your part. Once you ejected, then what happened? Because I mean, from
what I understand , you could literally see the Serbs below you as you
were parachuting down."
Captain O'Grady: "I saw the ground straight down in front
of me and I was praying to God that the seat would function right so that
I wouldn't fall to my death because I was conscious throughout the entire
event."
Interviewer: "You were conscious. You did have some burns
and I guess that's from the mechanism as you ejected out of the plane.
Explain to us how you evaded them, because they were just a few feet away."
Captain O'Grady: "Well, I got out of my chute as quick
as possible, tried to find a place to hide, and prayed to God they wouldn't
find me. And He was there and He protected me.
Interviwer: "And you just hit the ground face down?
I was watching this in the morning in my robe and pajamas, fixing breakfast
for my kids, and I was like, "Oh, my gosh, do we look like fools or what?"
Why are we afraid to touch this? Where does this incredible discomfort
come from? I won't even try to answer that question.
I think every student in journalism school
should be required to take at least one basic religion course
But I think ,secondly, other than the discomfort, there is a vacuum
when it comes to knowledge of religion with the media. I say this honestly.
The people I work with in New York are truly some of the brightest, most
brilliant, kindest and best people I've ever worked with. But when it comes
to religion, for many of them it is like learning a foreign language. There
is a real problem with religious illiteracy in the national media. That's
what I think, from my limited experience. Remember that in our country
a fourth of the people call themselves evangelical; that's one-quarter
of the population. One-quarter call themselves Catholic, another quarter
Protestant. That alone is 75% of the public. I think every student in journalism
school should be required to take at least one basic religion course to
understand these people.
I remember I was doing a story on the Baptists and AIDS and this poor
grandfather whose son had died of AIDS, another son had AIDS, his grandson
had died of AIDS, and I called my producer in New York and we were talking
about how to put together this story and she said, "You know, I really
think you ought to go for the job angle." I said, "Employment has really
little to do with this." She goes, "No, no, I think that job angle's the
best one." I said, "Well, what does this "job" have to do with it?" She
goes, "You know, Job, that man in the Bible that suffered so much."
That happens all the time and it amazes me. I think, I just went to
the University of Texas and these people went to Harvard and Princeton
and Yale. I mean they should at least know who Job was. I mean it's a little
bit scary.
Another reason journalists struggle with religion
coverage is because of the nature of what we do. We're taught to prove
everything, subject every claim to a rational test. Someone pointed out
very well that St. Thomas, better known as Doubting Thomas, could well
be journalism's patron saint.
Another reason journalists struggle with religion coverage is because
of the nature of what we do. We're taught to prove everything, subject
every claim to a rational test. Someone pointed out very well that St.
Thomas, better known as Doubting Thomas, could well be journalism's patron
saint. So how are we, who are taught to be skeptics, supposed to report
on the millions of people who believe in things they cannot see? I can
only tell you, as I've tried to do tonight, some of the ways we do that
at ABC. I really can't give you any speech about religion reporting at
ABC, especially here in Ottawa, without talking about Peter Jennings. This
entire project was his vision. After many years of covering the Middle
East and later Bosnia and, of course, the United States, Peter Jennings
felt very strongly that ABC was missing the religion dimension of stories.
So for several years he, on his own, made it his own personal thing to
get religion covered. There wasn't much response or reaction. He kept pushing
and pushing. Finally , they said, "If you want one religion reporter, you
go find him."
So he spent about three months looking. I remember the day he called
me. I was in Dallas covering religion for the local TV station. He called
me at home and said, "Hello, this is Peter Jennings. Is it true that you
cover religion?" I thought it was a joke. I was going to say, "Yeah, and
I'm Barbara Walters." But I didn't, and it was Peter Jennings, and that's
how it all started.
My challenge from Peter Jennings at ABC was to find religion stories
that meet the criteria of a good news story--human interest, drama, timeliness,
controversy. Now, that's not very hard for me. I have a trained eye for
religion and I tend to see it in stories that others don't. I regularly
poach on the education beat--which is easy with issues like prayer in school,
evolution-creation. I can constantly find a religion angle in education.
The health beat--science, medicine and religion--are a very big story right
now. There are all kinds of stories. We've done about three of them about
the powerful effect faith has on healing and longevity. And, of course,
the political beat, which I don't even have to explain in our country.
Back in local TV when I covered religion, my producers would send me
out on spot news stories--we would have five newscasts a day, so we couldn't
just do our own beat. I had to cover all kinds of things--train wrecks,
all kinds of things, a Marine from east Texas who had been shot down and
killed in the Middle East. had the terrible job of getting on the local
TV helicopter, going to east Texas, knocking on his mother's door to say,
"How do you feel about this?" And you have to hurry, too, because you have
to get it back on by the ten o'clock news because all the other local TV
stations are trying to get this.
My producer said: "Wehmeyer, how come no matter
what we send you out on, you come back with God?" And I said, "How come
you keep missing Him?"
So I went and I asked this woman if she would talk to us. She was very
gracious and willing to talk and we talked a little about her son and we
got some pictures. Right before I left, I noticed a big fat Bible on a
coffee table and I thought, you know, she either has that Bible there because
it's a family heirloom or she reads the darn thing and it means something
to her, so I might as well ask her. So I said, "Before I leave, I notice
there's a Bible on your coffee table there. Is this an important part of
your life?" She burst into tears and she said, "Oh, I'm so glad you asked.
I know where my son is, he's with the Lord and we have prayed for years
together." She went into this huge thing about how much her faith meant
to her and her confidence that her son was in heaven with God, so I'm flying
back in the helicopter and I'm frantically writing this 90 second story.
I wasn't going to make it all about religion, but it was a religion story.
So in the last line I wrote something, "Mrs. So-And-So was confident that
she knew where her son was and this gave her peace."
I handed in my script and the ten o'clock producer banged his hand down
and he said--won't say exactly what he said--but he said, "Wehmeyer, how
come no matter what we send you out on, you come back with God?" And I
said, "How come you keep missing Him?"
People always ask, "Are you doing this because of your faith?" I would
like to think, even if I didn't have faith of my own--which I do--that
I, as a journalist, would be able to see something in people of faith or
in the faith community. It is hard, for some reason, for people who have
no faith to be able to see it, but as journalists we have to be able to
cover these things and develop eyes to see. As a faith community, you also
have to develop the eyes and ears and heart to understand the secular world
and the media.
One last thing. I'd like to show you one example--this is mainly aimed
for media people--of how you take even a spot news story, a regular old
story like the Marine I just told you about, and find a religion angle.
We had a huge tornado in Jarell, Texas last year. Wiped out the town, killed
all these people. It was the highest level of tornado you could have. As
a religion reporter, I'm always thinking religion. I thought, you know,
it's a gamble, but that's a little town in central Texas. I bet 80% of
them are Southern Baptist and I bet they're wondering where is God when
something like this happens. Now, they're going to think in New York I'm
crazy for raising this issue, but maybe we can make a story out of this:
Where is God when it hurts? Can you imagine that in the news?
So I called up there and I got a producer open to it. I said, "It may
not work, but I want to go down there. I have a feeling there's some deeply
religious people down there dealing with this tragedy. When a terrible
thing like this happens, many people turn to their faith for solace, for
comfort, for answering those big why questions." And we lucked out, if
you want to call it that. We went down there and, sure enough, that's what
people wanted to talk about.
In terms of broadcast media, however, until
the major networks take it more seriously and give it more attention, I
think we have a serious problem.
We've obviously covered many stories since then. You've just seen a
small slice. We've covered Heaven's Gate, we've covered the religion of
anti- government militias, the growth of Islam in America, the Catholic
church's struggle over the role of women in the church, the role of faith
in the workplace, interfaith marriage, inside Judaism, everything we can
get our hands on. I'm not exactly sure where you are on in religion coverage
in this country, but I can tell you that in the States in the past five
years or so, print coverage has become much more extensive and sophisticated.
We have full-colour religion sections now, not just religion sections buried
in the back of Sunday or Saturday's paper. Our national public radio has
a full- time religion reporter and our public broadcasting system has started
a new religion news story, but the audience is far smaller than that of
the network news. In terms of broadcast media, however, until the major
networks--CNN, NBC, CBS--take it more seriously and give it more attention,
I think we have a serious problem.
Religion is one of the last great frontiers of news coverage. There
are a wealth of stories still untold in our country and I'm sure as many,
maybe more, in yours. Until we tell them, I think we're only giving our
audience a small part of the whole story.
Peggy Wehmeyer is a reporter for ABC's World News Tonight with
Peter Jennings. She is the only correspondent who reports on religious
issues for a major U.S. television network. She joined World News Tonight
from WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, where she covered religion and social issues
for more than ten years.
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Last modified: 29 October 1999
