T Matt Goes After LA Times on AP Style

There's a fascinating discussion going on over at Terry Mattingly's blog about MSM coverage of Sarah Palin, and especially about the use/misuse of the word "fundamentalist" as prescribed in the AP stylebook.

I'll let you look up some of his posts by clicking here, but reproduced here is a bit of his thinking about what is ethical and what is not, based upon AP stylebook-prescribed use of language:

Let’s be clear what MZ is saying. She is talking about the AP Stylebook and what these words actually mean. This has been a major theme here at GetReligion since day one. Click here to see some of that.

The best evidence is that Palin is an “evangelical” in the context of US religious history, not a “fundamentalist” as that movement defined itself. That is why the AP Stylebook says that the F-word should not be used in this kind of context, as an unsupported slur. To say that some one believes the Bible or believes that it is “literally true,” whatever that means, is not enough to label that person a “fundamentalist.” If the person is a Protestant, it probably is safe to say they are an “evangelical.”

Now, historically speaking, you can’t be a Pentecostal Christian — some of whom are not Trinitarian believers — and a fundamentalist. These movements actually clash on a regular basis. Ask any reporter currently covering some battles within the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is true that many newspapers have, even AP reporters have, misused the F-word in violation of their own stylebook. That’s the point of MZ’s post.

The stylebook does not address the blurring of definitions between creationism and evolution, but it should. Historically, the word Creationism referred to people who accepted a seven-, 24-hour day version of the biblical creation story.

Now, the word seems to apply to anyone who believes that God played any discernible role in creation — even through a gradual, change-over-time, common descent method of creation. The key is whether this person rejects the philosophical view that the process was random and without purpose. You would think that this position would be called “theistic evolution,” but it is not. The Materialist interpretations of the Darwinian mechanism are what the late Pope John Paul II spoke out against, while noting that their are multiple interpretations of Darwinian theory.

What MZ is calling for is a better use, by journalists, of these important words — which have historical meanings. Use neutral language. Describe people’s actions, without speculating on what they mean. Allow them to label themselves, the way you do other religious believers.

MZ is taking a side on the JOURNALISTIC issue, based on history and journalistic principles. When newspapers — such as the Los Angeles Times in this case — violate basic journalistic principles, it begins to feel like an editorial attack on a certain group or class of people.

The bottom line: It’s bad, inaccurate, journalism. And, as an agnostic Jewish friend of mine once said, any industry that spends a lot of its time mocking, or at best ignoring, the most cherished beliefs of roughly 30 to 40 percent of its potential audience is not an industry that is serious about its own survival. Is the goal to produce smaller and smaller niche publications after killing mainstream journalism?