Peggy Wehmeyer of ABC News is the first, and so far only, full-time reporter on the religion beat at an American TV network. At the Ottawa conference, she took particular issue with the way, as she sees it, the media generally seem unable to respond to people who want to talk about a religious dimension to their experience. She read from a transcript of an interview with Capt. Scott O'Grady, the American flyer widely hailed as a hero for surviving being shot down by the Bosnian Serbs. He continually brought up his faith in God as he told of his experience - and the interviewer kept changing the subject.
Some analysts have another view.
It doesn't mean the reporter endorses the view. A number of journalism schools offer courses or programs intended to help reporters cover religion better. Trinity will have a series of seminars for reporters this fall, and Silk will also direct a series of regional conferences for supervisory editors.