Ita writes in to say she’s seeing a pattern in the reporting on the church closings by the Boston Globe. Consider this story about St. Anselm’s in Sudbury. Here is what Ita says:
It repeats a pattern I’ve found in other Globe stories y’re leaving the Church to become an Episcopalian or something.
She’s definitely on to something there. It’s almost like they have a template. Of course, it’s not just stories about Church closings. Whether it’s a story about Republican policies, the Scandal, the war in Iraq, President Bush campaigning, or what have you, it’s a similar pattern: Take one person’s experience, show how hard they are personally hit by the actions or policies of “bad people” of the moment (even if it is just anecdotal evidence), extrapolate that out to everyone, provide quotes from those who have opposing views from the “bad people”, and then end with another dire personal experience or something that’s supposed to provide a warning for the “bad people”. You see the same thing in the network evening news. So this story ends with the following:
