Evangelicals are in the news, but not in newsrooms

AP via SFGate ^ | 10/17/8 | ROSE FRENCH, Associated Press Writer

[SmithL]

Nashville, Tenn. (AP) -- Here is a foolproof way for politicians to score points with evangelical voters: Attack the media, an institution widely seen as lacking conservative Christian voices.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and his evangelical running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have done just that at times during the campaign, with repeated jabs at the "liberal media."

One way to change this perception, some church leaders, social commentators and journalists say, is for mainstream news organizations to employ — and keep — more evangelicals in their newsrooms.

"Journalism has become more of a white-collar field that draws from elite colleges," said Terry Mattingly, director of the Washington Journalism Center for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and a religion columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. "While there's been heavy gender and racial diversity ... there's a lack of cultural diversity in journalism," including religion.

Since the 1980s, when the Christian right emerged as a powerful force in American culture and politics, evangelicals have made significant inroads in law and government by training believers to work inside secular institutions. But while the same universities that helped students launch careers in those fields are offering similar programs in journalism, they haven't been as successful at changing the nation's newsrooms.

"The media — journalism — remain one of the hardest fields for them to realize their power,"

[AndyTheBear]

"Journalism has become more of a white-collar field that draws from elite colleges,"

And the elite colleges heavily discriminate against non-liberals and non-secularists in hiring faculty.

Its called indoctrination, which is the only way a philosophy so absurd could survive in a modern society.

[xJones]

Its called indoctrination, which is the only way a philosophy so absurd could survive in a modern society.

It's also called circle jerking, which is mostly what those wankers do.