Article July 7, 1997 Issue

Religion in American newspapers

by Kim Shippey

Gustav Niebuhr, senior religion writer of The New York Times, spoke recently in Boston at the annual convention of the Religious Public Relations Council. We share some of his remarks, and then talk with Elizabeth Spaid, an Atlanta-based staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor, who earlier this year wrote a Monitor story under the title "Media Become More Faithful To Reporting About Religion."

"Interest in religion in all its many forms is running very high right now," said Mr. Niebuhr, "not only among the general public but also in newsrooms. In my experience, I have never found justification for that old saw that newsrooms are biased against religion. I find that there's a tremendous interest on the part of editors, which is all for the good; and it's not all that difficult getting religion stories onto the front page...."

Mr. Niebuhr described how he abandons conventional wisdom when he goes on a reporting assignment. He reaches out "with an open mind, an insatiable curiosity, and a willingness to learn during each story. It's such a rich field for exploration that you have to go in almost expecting the unexpected....

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