LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Media Matters study talks about the skewed representation of religion in media.

Care to guess to what side it's skewed? Here's a look:

In order to begin to assess how the news media paint the picture of religion in America today, this study measured the extent to which religious leaders, both conservative and progressive, are quoted, mentioned, and interviewed in the news media.

Among the study's key findings:

* Combining newspapers and television, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed in news stories 2.8 times as often [emphasis mine] as were progressive religious leaders.
* On television news -- the three major television networks, the three major cable new channels, and PBS -- conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed almost 3.8 times as often [emphasis mine] as progressive leaders.
* In major newspapers, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed 2.7 times as often as progressive leaders.

Despite the fact most religious Americans are moderate or progressive, in the news media it is overwhelmingly conservative leaders who are presented as the voice of religion. This represents a particularly meaningful distortion since progressive religious leaders tend to focus on different issues and offer an entirely different perspective than their conservative counterparts.

Is it any wonder that our country is perceived by outsiders as a nation of regressive religious fanatics?

Here's the full report.
And here's a discussion from On The Media with writer Jeff Sharlet and study author Paul Waldman. It's worth a listen.

Media bias is a major problem, but it also presents a major solution, too: Progressive Christian voices need to be heard instead of, and much more often than conservative voices, and should start insisting and persisting in being heard. If progressive Christians are the actual majority, they need to speak up. The time for being polite and unobtrusive is past.

Folks ask what we can do about the onslaught of the Religious Right- speaking up and showing up is definitely something that can be done.