Not long ago the American news media were regularly charged with hostility to religion. Most of the criticism came from the religious right, but not all. From the middle of the political spectrum, religiously committed authors like Stephen Carter and Garry Wills also chastised journalists for failing to take religion seriously. Over the past few years, however, the criticism has tailed off-probably because there's more religion in the news media now than at any time in recent memory. The news magazines are putting religion on their covers year round, rather than just at Christmas and Easter.
Economic considerations play a part.
Over the past decade, daily newspapers have been trying to regain market share by devoting more attention to the daily occupations and concerns of the public at large-and religion has been deemed a major target of opportunity. But commerce aside, journalists have come to believe that they have underestimated how much religion matters in contemporary society. For two decades, religion has been cutting a high profile in politics at home and around the world. And, while the sociological data are not yet in, there is a feeling that some kind of a religious revival is going on out there. Even on the American left, heartland of secularism, there are voices calling for more attention to, and even appreciation of, religion as a force in people's lives and the affairs of state.