Religious Liberty, Beyond Red & Blue

Beginning in late January, I’ve looked at various difficulties the mainstream media has had with handling questions surrounding religious freedom. When the Obama Administration announced in mid-January that it would not broaden an exemption for a new mandate requiring religious employers to pay for insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion drugs, the story — which had been brewing for many months — took off. Generally speaking, fans of the mandate say it is an important step to advancing greater access to contraception. Critics say it violates religious freedom. And political campaigners on all sides see it as an issue ripe for exploitation and grandstanding. These elements have combined in various ways to shape the larger coverage of the mandate.

The first media analysis issue to note was that while U.S. Catholic Bishops were at Defcon 2 or so in their response, media coverage was surprisingly restrained (see, for example, my January 31 post: Catholics outraged, media unimpressed). That restraint was particularly noteworthy in light of the excessive coverage of Susan G. Komen For The Cure’s decision to voluntarily stop donating money to the country’s biggest abortion provider (see, for example, my posts on February 2: Media discover Planned Parenthood is controversial , February 3, 2012: Media genuflect before Church of Planned Parenthood,  February 6: Planned Parenthood and media thank each other and February 7: Kurtz: Of course Komen stories were biased).