<p>Anyone who doubts that news media hostility to religious-based activism is often political at its core need only review the media's treatment of three Dominican nuns sentenced last week to federal prison in Denver for damaging government property at a missile silo. For months the three were regularly applauded in the Colorado press, the subject of tributes in columns and a number of one-sided news reports. One Rocky Mountain News writer started his commentary on the nuns' impending prison stint with the following warning: "We like to think of ourselves as a just nation. So if you want to hold onto that thought, you might want to stop reading here."</p>