Culture/Society

On Dec. 14, 2010, the Culture and Media Institute reported that the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ)’s Diversity Committee announced a year-long campaign to “educate journalists about the hurtfulness of phrases like ‘illegal immigrant,’ which is the term currently preferred by the influential AP Stylebook.” After the Daily Caller picked up the story, the Fox News Channel followed…

MTV aims to make a profit airing a show about a pregnant teen deciding to abort her baby, and the best media writers can muster is to call it a “sensitive issue.” An MTV Special to be aired at 11:30pm Dec. 28, “No Easy Decision” is a half-hour program that follows a teen mom’s tragic decision to abort her child. The media coverage leading up to the program’s air date has merely glossed over…

Newspaper readers probably had raised eyebrows on Christmas Day if they saw Doonesbury's comic strip for this sacred day. A female social worker is chatting with a female soldier and asking her if she gets support out in the field. They have this exchange: SOLDIER: Yes, ma'am, I talk to our chaplain. SOCIAL WORKER: Good. A chaplain can be a good resource. SOLDIER: Mine yells at God a lot…

The metaphor “The War on Christmas” can be mocked – as if Santa and his reindeer are dodging anti-aircraft fire. But many of our public schools have church-and-state sensitivity police with an alarming degree of Santaphobia. Anyone who's attended a school's “winter concert” in December with no traditional Christmas music – not even “Frosty the Snowman” – knows the drill. The vast Christian…

It seems that every year, American pop culture continues to push the envelope of what is acceptable in society, and 2010 was no different. From Cee-Lo Green’s hit “F**k You” to Enrique Iglesias’ new song set to release next year titled, “I’m F**king You” the “F” word is going mainstream. One has to wonder if the media will ask the question: Is there anything attention-seekers won’t include in a…

ABC's Dan Harris gave a slanted report on Wednesday's GMA about the Catholic bishop of Phoenix, Arizona stripping a hospital there of its Catholic status: "This is a story that involves a nun, described as saintly; a Catholic bishop; a world-class hospital; and a controversy now being discussed across the country." Harris unnecessarily introduced the priestly sex scandal into his report, and…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – especially if you’re expecting a little extra naughtiness from mildly attractive celebrity women. Despite the original spiritual message of Christmas and typically cold weather, female Hollywood goddesses have taken to greeting loved ones with Christmas cards featuring themselves in skimpy outfits and sultry poses. What would a Christmas card from…

On today's Style section front page, Washington Post theater reviewer Peter Marks gave unqualified praise for "Oy Vey In a Manger," a production at the Jewish Community Center in Northwest D.C. that features irreverent parodies of traditional Christmas and Chanukah songs in a ribald fashion: Don they now their gay apparel! In an ecumenical display of wicked joie de vivre, the Kinsey Sicks…

In a report at the top of the 8AM ET hour of Tuesday's CBS Early Show, senior White House correspondent Bill Plante ridiculed Sarah Palin for daring to criticize First Lady Michelle Obama's weight loss campaign: "Palin has never been at a loss for an opinion on anything, including taking a pot shot at the First Lady's campaign to eat healthy." Fill-in news reader Betty Nguyen introduced…

A funny thing happened on the way to finding yet another year of media emphasis on the use of "holiday" vs. "Christmas" in describing the shopping season. Google News searches conducted this morning at about 7:30 ET on "Christmas shopping season" and "holiday shopping season" came back with the highest percentage of "Christmas" results I've seen in the six years I've been doing these searches…

A new Gallup poll is out showing that 40 percent of Americans believe that "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so" while 38 percent believe "God guided [the] process" of evolution and only 16 percent believe evolution happened without any help from God. Among the poll's findings was that a full 37 percent with a college…

Momma, don't let your babies grow up to be stay-at-home mommas. That seemed to be the underlying bias from a popular daytime TV show. It's not a new message, but it's one that may be changing. "She almost made it," is how Barbara Walters introduced Rachel Campos-Duffy and her husband, Sean Duffy, a congressman-elect, to the set of ABC's "The View." Campos-Duffy, a former reality-TV cast…

Could Michael Kinsley possibly be any more predictable?  His review of George Bush's "Decision Points," appearing in today's Sunday New York Times, is precisely the smug piece of sneering partisanship you would expect in this paper and from this quintessential liberal MSM elitist. As the headline indicates, Kinsley flatly accuses W of "stealing" the 2000 election.  Kinsley offers no proof,…

For all of the bluster and glory, for all of the pomp and circumstance and yes, for all of the anticipated hope and the promised change, the whirlwind of hype and expectation surrounding the President a mere two years earlier has virtually dissolved, and Barack Obama has set a course that will leave his legacy as no more than a footnote in American Presidential history.