A gift we’re not likely to get in the coming year would be better writing and press coverage.
The day before Thanksgiving, the liberal political site ReformAustin ran this headline about severe weather the day before in Texas: Harris County Hit Hard as Tornado Strikes Without Warning.
Since when do tornadoes give warnings in advance of descending to wreak havoc? And as to weather service warnings, the area was under a tornado watch well before a twister lowered from on high. So, what is meant by “Tornado Strikes Without Warning?” It is lazy, ignorant, or simply bad press writing and has become too common across the media landscape.
Then we get the more typical problem of the press engaging in subtle misleading of the public exemplified with this Hearst headline in the Houston Chronicle: ‘Monstrously broad’: Faith-based groups sue Ken Paxton over Texas investment law.
The Texas law, Senate Bill 2337, that says investment proxy advisers must give advice based on financial performance as opposed to pushing for political and social goals may indeed be too broad, that will need settling in the courts. However, the problem with the headline and story is how it leads readers to believe that churches and people of faith are behind the lawsuit instead of regular political leftist front groups.
Similar headlines are common in the Texas press. Often stories report “faith leaders” or similar are against this or that policy favored by Republicans. Many such stories have been published in this style about immigration and border policies that favor law and order.
With the Chronicle’s “faith-based groups” story on suing Texas over the proxy advisor law, you find the common situation of the aggrieved being two left wing groups. In this case it is the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and United Church Funds behind the suit.
Both groups are religious affiliated leftist groups that spend most their time fighting against conservative policy and for left wing policy.
The United Church Funds group is associated with the United Church of Christ which is the most radically progressive leftist religious denomination in North America. All you need know about the Untied Church of Christ is encapsulated in this 2018 headline: After coming out as atheist, pastor still keeps job.
No kidding.
Gretta “Vosper, 60, who was ordained in 1993 and had served as minister of West Hill United Church since 1997, has been upfront about her atheism and non-belief in the Bible for years,” reported pulpitandpen.org in 2018. Yet, the United Church of Christ entered into a settlement with her to continue as a pastor in that polity.
Her lawyer, Julian Falconer, said of the settlement: “Both parties took a long look at the cost-benefit at running a heresy trial and whether it was good for anyone (and) the results speak for themselves. They recognized there’s a place for Gretta, and that there is no reason to separate the minister and the congregation.”
I think most of Christendom would not consider an affiliate of the United Church of Christ to be a “faith-based” anything.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility was a group with which I was not familiar but it took all of seconds to find, on the official website for the World Economic Forum no less, that it is a left wing social and climate justice group that “represents more than $4 trillion in managed assets.” Its own website shows its areas of concern being: “The Climate Crisis; Advancing Worker Justice; Health Equity; Corporate Political Responsibility, and Equitable Global Supply Chains” among other left wing tropes.
The press too often misleads the public by making it appear that Christians in general are taking a position when in reality it is simply everyday left wing political activists doing so under a mask of religion.
This fall we saw headlines like this one from WFAA: North Texas faith leaders sue the TEA, local school boards over law requiring Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. That set of “faith leaders” were from “Christian and Nation of Islam congregations” that were not identified in the story other than by personal names.
The press too often misleads the public by making it appear that Christians in general are taking a position when in reality it is simply everyday left wing political activists doing so under a mask of religion. Reporters and editors mostly know what they are doing; they know that a headline reading Nation of Islam, liberal clergy opposed Ten Commandments in schools isn’t much going to help their left wing agenda with most Texans.
Our press needs reform; keep your expectations low
The day before Thanksgiving, the liberal political site ReformAustin ran this headline about severe weather the day before in Texas: Harris County Hit Hard as Tornado Strikes Without Warning.
Since when do tornadoes give warnings in advance of descending to wreak havoc? And as to weather service warnings, the area was under a tornado watch well before a twister lowered from on high. So, what is meant by “Tornado Strikes Without Warning?” It is lazy, ignorant, or simply bad press writing and has become too common across the media landscape.
Then we get the more typical problem of the press engaging in subtle misleading of the public exemplified with this Hearst headline in the Houston Chronicle: ‘Monstrously broad’: Faith-based groups sue Ken Paxton over Texas investment law.
The Texas law, Senate Bill 2337, that says investment proxy advisers must give advice based on financial performance as opposed to pushing for political and social goals may indeed be too broad, that will need settling in the courts. However, the problem with the headline and story is how it leads readers to believe that churches and people of faith are behind the lawsuit instead of regular political leftist front groups.
Similar headlines are common in the Texas press. Often stories report “faith leaders” or similar are against this or that policy favored by Republicans. Many such stories have been published in this style about immigration and border policies that favor law and order.
With the Chronicle’s “faith-based groups” story on suing Texas over the proxy advisor law, you find the common situation of the aggrieved being two left wing groups. In this case it is the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and United Church Funds behind the suit.
Both groups are religious affiliated leftist groups that spend most their time fighting against conservative policy and for left wing policy.
The United Church Funds group is associated with the United Church of Christ which is the most radically progressive leftist religious denomination in North America. All you need know about the Untied Church of Christ is encapsulated in this 2018 headline: After coming out as atheist, pastor still keeps job.
No kidding.
Her lawyer, Julian Falconer, said of the settlement: “Both parties took a long look at the cost-benefit at running a heresy trial and whether it was good for anyone (and) the results speak for themselves. They recognized there’s a place for Gretta, and that there is no reason to separate the minister and the congregation.”
I think most of Christendom would not consider an affiliate of the United Church of Christ to be a “faith-based” anything.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility was a group with which I was not familiar but it took all of seconds to find, on the official website for the World Economic Forum no less, that it is a left wing social and climate justice group that “represents more than $4 trillion in managed assets.” Its own website shows its areas of concern being: “The Climate Crisis; Advancing Worker Justice; Health Equity; Corporate Political Responsibility, and Equitable Global Supply Chains” among other left wing tropes.
The press too often misleads the public by making it appear that Christians in general are taking a position when in reality it is simply everyday left wing political activists doing so under a mask of religion.
This fall we saw headlines like this one from WFAA: North Texas faith leaders sue the TEA, local school boards over law requiring Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. That set of “faith leaders” were from “Christian and Nation of Islam congregations” that were not identified in the story other than by personal names.
The press too often misleads the public by making it appear that Christians in general are taking a position when in reality it is simply everyday left wing political activists doing so under a mask of religion. Reporters and editors mostly know what they are doing; they know that a headline reading Nation of Islam, liberal clergy opposed Ten Commandments in schools isn’t much going to help their left wing agenda with most Texans.