VOICES: ATTITUDES
The People, the Press, and the Pulpit

BY ANDREW KOHUT

The increasingly important role of religion in public life presents a challenge for the press. The media have particularly low credibility in this area -- even journalists themselves have doubts about their ability to cover religious issues. Public and press concerns reflect a huge but familiar gap: on the one hand, the American public is one of the most religious in the West. At the same time, there are more than a few non-believers in the nation's newsrooms. This is nothing new, but it looms as a larger problem given the emerging prominence of subjects such as President Bush's proposal to provide federal funding to "faith-based" organizations, and other political and policy questions related to organized religion.

A recent Public Agenda Foundation survey found 44 percent of the public saying that the media's coverage of religion is worse than its handling of other subjects. In a separate survey, journalists concurred.

The public's specific complaints about press coverage of religion are unremarkable and could be applied to press treatment of any institution or facet of American life. But these specific criticisms are far less important than the perception that journalists are on the other side of a cultural divide that prevents them from "getting it" when it comes to religion.

A Research Center study in the mid-1990s found nearly 60 percent of the public thinking the personal values of journalists make it difficult for them to understand and cover such things as religion and family values. A companion study found about four in ten journalists saying this is a valid criticism. The more recent Public Agenda survey showed 56 percent of its general public respondents agreeing with the statement that too many journalists have a built-in bias against religion. And there was also a fair degree of press concurrence -- as many as 46 percent of the media respondents thought that too many members of the press had an anti-religion bias.

Religious people see the news media as key players in a national culture that does not reflect -- or respect -- their views and values. Fully 68 percent of Evangelical Christians surveyed by Public Agenda said they thought that people with their religious beliefs were discriminated against! A 1996 Gallup poll found 60 percent of Americans describing the "governing elite," including the mass media, as not very religious.

The increased blurring of the church-state divide in the current administration raises many important questions worthy of journalistic scrutiny, but it will be tough for the press to achieve credibility in this area. Many Americans express worries about too much religious influence on politics and governance and they will look to the press to cover this debate and ask the hard questions. Obviously, the media cannot back off in pursuing this story but it must approach it with sensitivity, while exploring one of the touchiest subjects in our society.

Put on your helmets!

Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, writes regularly for CJR about public attitudes toward the media.