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You know, the Ten Commandments, it says you can’t commit adultery; it says you need to honor your father and mother. If someone didn’t honor their parents or commit adultery, would you serve them?” This question was posed by CNN reporter Gary Tuchman to Georgia florist Melissa Jeffcoat, who had previously said she’d refuse to service a homosexual commitment ceremony. When she answered affirmatively and was pressed on why (supposedly) she’d serve adulterers and those dishonoring their parents but not homosexuals, she replied, “It’s just a different kind of sin to me. I just don’t believe in it.” Tuchman surely...

Laurence H. Tribe, the highly regarded liberal scholar of constitutional law, still speaks of President Obama as a proud teacher would of a star student. “He was one of the most amazing research assistants I’ve ever had,” Mr. Tribe said in a recent interview. Mr. Obama worked for him at Harvard Law School, where Mr. Tribe has taught for four decades. Many in the Obama administration and at Harvard are bewildered and angry that Mr. Tribe, who argued on behalf of Al Gore in the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, has emerged as the leading legal opponent of...

WASHINGTON -- His hair almost fully gray now, his tone somber but earnestly hopeful, President Barack Obama stood in the White House Rose Garden Thursday and made a case for the centerpiece of his second term, for his vision of how to handle dangerous enemies, and for his own role in history. This was Obama at his own personal summit, carrying out what he views as his destiny: a coolly practical peacemaker. Invoking three Cold War presidents -- John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan -- the 53-year-old Obama, still young by global statesman standards, claimed to have reached,...

Several prominent, openly gay athletes will be among those protesting the new Indiana religious freedom law this week, despite Gov. Mike Pence’s promise to "fix" the law before the Final Four begins on Saturday, according to local activists. Olympic diving legend Greg Louganis and former NBA player Jason Collins are among those coming to the state this week for press conferences or other public events. The effort to keep attention on the law around the college basketball showcase in Indianapolis. Rick Sutton, a veteran LGBT organizer and activist based in Indiana, said those who are upset by the new law...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The Arkansas House of Representatives passed a "religious freedom" bill similar to the controversial measure in Indiana. The bill now heads to Gov. Asa Hutchinson's desk for signing into law. Hutchinson said that he would approve the measure if it made it to his office, CBS News affiliate KTVH in Little Rock reported. The Arkansas version of the bill -- HB 1228 -- would prevent state and local governments from infringement on someone's religious beliefs unless there were a "compelling" reason. Like the Indiana law, opponents say it would foster discrimination against the gay and lesbian...

In 1997, in the City of Boerne v. Flores decision, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) did not apply to the states. Since 1993, 20 states have enacted state RFRAs. These laws are intended to echo the federal RFRA, but are not necessarily identical to the federal law. Indiana is the most recent state to enact a RFRA, doing so this year. Sixteen states have introduced legislation this year regarding the creation of, or alteration to, a state religious freedom law. Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas currently have a RFRA, but have introduced...

To listen to talk radio and cable television, which are dominated by conservatives, the national and state debates over immigration give the impression that most legal residents of the state of California oppose immigrant workers here illegally and might even be favorably disposed to Mitt Romney's suggestion that they "self-deport." As it turns out, however, the voices of anti-immigration forces are disproportionately louder than their actual numbers. A new poll of likely California voters shows that a whopping 73% support granting citizenship to immigrants here illegally if they agreed to pay back taxes, pass a background check and learn the...

Four journalists arrested during last summer's Ferguson protests over the shooting death of Michael Brown filed a federal lawsuit Monday against St. Louis County police and 20 of its officers, accusing them of violating the reporters' civil rights and unjustifiably detaining them. The lawsuit, filed Monday in St. Louis, alleges the arrests for the journalists' failure to disperse as demanded by police on Aug. 18 and Aug. 19 were "undertaken with the intention of obstructing, chilling, deterring, and retaliating against (the) plaintiffs for engaging in constitutionally protected speech, newsgathering and recording of police activities." The plaintiffs include Ryan Devereaux of...

The headline to this story is an adage taught by journalism schools throughout the country. News is supposed to be based on facts and reported without bias. But alas, reporters are human and have biases, acknowledged or not. If they are blatant and obvious, then we can dismiss them out of hand, (example: Chris Matthews saying, "I felt this thrill going up my leg," when listening to a speech given by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama). But watch out when supposed news items align with a cultural bias. Reporters should apply skepticism to everything they report on. Otherwise, emotionally charged stories...

“Think just how different the world would be,” said Senator Ted Cruz on Monday, in a speech so packed with vision-spinning and the word “imagine” that it seemed as if John Lennon had returned, as a Hispanic Texan running a hard-right, anti-establishment, Christian-themed campaign for the White House. Weird. But weird is the essence of Mr. Cruz, who is now the first major Republican in the 2016 race. The “imagines” that Mr. Cruz doled out were well chosen for his audience, students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Robust cheers greeted one of the first: “Imagine young people coming out...

Several months ago, your GetReligionistas created our "What is this?" logo to salute a question that we have found ourselves asking over and over during the past decade. Here's the deal. So you are reading something in a newspaper or online source that is supposed to be producing old-school hard news. Then you hit a passage or two that, simply stated, are wildly opinionated or built on what appears to be secret information, without a source that is shared with readers. In other words, you hit a patch of blatant opinion in the middle of a "news" article, like a...

[The St. Petersburg Times in Russia appears to have stopped publishing new articles since January 2015] Russian Businessman Buys 'Leviathan' Skeleton for Moscow Lawn The St. Petersburg Times Published: January 31, 2015 (Issue # 1844) Translation Is New Weapon in Propaganda War By Michele A. Berdy The St. Petersburg Times Published: January 31, 2015 (Issue # 1844) Russians Say They Fear Hunger, Unemployment and Nuclear War By Anna Dolgov The St. Petersburg Times Published: January 31, 2015 (Issue # 1844)

Traditional media has been on a downward slide for some time now, with cutbacks taking place in newsrooms at papers, magazines and cable television outlets. This makes for a tighter job market for those following the traditional J-school path and that new reality seems to be setting in at Columbia. One of the oldest journalism schools in the nation is downsizing. Columbia UniversityÂ’s Graduate School of Journalism will reduce its class size and cut about six positions from its staff as the news industry retrenches.The school will gradually reduce enrollment over several years and has already stopped filling some...

Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism will reduce its class size and cut about six positions from its staff as the news industry retrenches. The school will gradually reduce enrollment over several years and has already stopped filling some vacant faculty positions, Steve Coll, dean of the school since 2013, said in an e-mail to students, faculty and staff today.

There’s a new owner and a new approach to the news at WJLA-TV, Washington’s ABC affiliate. Under the direction of its ambitious corporate parent, the station’s news operations have taken a subtle but noticeable turn to the right. Last week, for example, WJLA viewers woke up to a new face on the morning news: Mark Hyman, a veteran conservative pundit, who offered some criticism of President Obama. .... a regular feature on WJLA, just as they are on dozens of stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the new owner of ABC 7. The Hunt Valley, Md.-based company in July...

U.S. stocks pulled back Tuesday, retreating from all-time highs and the psychologically significant 5,000 level for the Nasdaq Composite reached during the previous session. In the absence of major economic reports, investors turned their attention to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to U.S. Congress. Netanyahu criticized the White House’s attempts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, saying it was a “bad deal.” The speech reminded investors of potential geopolitical risks abroad. But indexes have since come off their lows.

In Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times, President Obama previewed his address on violent extremism by saying that, “Our campaign to prevent people around the world from being radicalized to violence is ultimately a battle for hearts and minds.”President Obama could not be more correct in this statement.However, he also nearly half the world’s countries, intellectuals, journalists, and bloggers face a constant threat of punishment if their works are deemed blasphemous or insulting to religions or moral standards. In some nations where blasphemy and apostasy laws are taken most seriously such as Pakistan and Iran, these crimes carry extreme penalties like lifetime...

Truth-Telling and the News Media from Lee Webb Feb 13, 2015 Category: Articles NBC announced Tuesday that it suspended its lead news anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay. Network brass concluded that Williams embellished his experiences covering stories over the years; most notably that he was in a U.S. Army helicopter that was hit by enemy fire during the Iraq War in 2003.I’ve taken more than a passing interest in the story since I share a couple of things in common with Mr. Williams. First, before coming to Ligonier Ministries, I spent nineteen years in a position similar to his,...

If Brian Williams, the anchor and face of NBC News, goes, others should march right out the door behind him. Williams, in 2003, filed a report about his experiences in Iraq. He accurately reported that a helicopter an hour in front of his took fire from an RPG. But over the years the story morphed into Williams claiming that his helicopter took an incoming RPG and other small arms fire. Other stories Williams told and filed are under review, including apparently exaggerated or false claims filed or stated during Hurricane Katrina. Williams claimed he saw a dead body floating in...

FOX News Channel ranked number one in all of cable in both Total Day as well as in early primetime (7-11PM) viewers last week. This represents the first time FOX News Channel has topped both metrics since 2013. Meanwhile, both CNN and MSNBC didn't crack the top 20 in either metric. See below for more: CABLE NEWS RANKINGS Total Day FNC - #1 CNN - #21 MSNBC - #31 7-11PM Primetime FNC - #1 MSNBC - #27 CNN - #30 8-11PM Primetime FNC - #2 MSNBC - #28 CNN - #31