John Allen on the British press

John Allen, a widely respected reporter who writes for the National Catholic Reporter, has devoted his weekly "All things Catholic" column to a critique of the way in which the British press reports on religious matters. The article is entitled Irresponsible reporting on religion is dangerous. He begins:
Normally I love writing this column, but this week I need to say something that gives me no pleasure at all. Here it is in a nutshell: Reporting on religion in the mainstream British press is not only sometimes dreadful, it's dangerous, and something needs to be done about it.
Allen is particularly moved to write because of Ruth Gledhill's article in last Monday's Times "Churches back plan to unite under Pope."

To be honest, when I heard of this article, I didn't really bother to take much notice. Over here we are so wearily accustomed to stupid sensationalist reporting on religious matters that I have come to the point that I only read such articles when it is necessary because someone has been foolish enough to take them seriously.

However, this particular piece in the Times seems to have had the effect of waking up people elsewhere in the world to the staple diet of religious reporting that we have to endure.

Jimmy Akin has also commented on Gledhill's reporting (not as politely as Allen) in his post She's Baaaaa-aaaack!!!. From there he links to a withering attack on a previous article which was headed "Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible."

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