Insights from a Religion Reporter

Sam Kestenbaum is a too-rare thing these days: a religion reporter. There was once a time when most newspapers -- national and local -- had writers on the religion beat, but as bureaus shrank and publications shuttered, fewer papers and websites regularly published stories by journalists who, like Kestenbaum, have a practiced subject expertise. Of course, that doesn't mean religion isn't in the news. But it does mean that news writers don't approach religion stories with the same nuance or historical perspective as a specialist.