WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Don’t Know Much About Theology? Then There May Be A Job For You In The Media.

A newly-released study from the University of Southern California provides chilling evidence that the MSM’s religious incompetence and insensitivity runs deep. A key discovery:

One-half of reporters say the biggest challenge to covering religion is a lack of knowledge about the subject. Only a fifth of reporters say they are “very knowledgeable” about religion, and most of these are mainly familiar with their own religious traditions, not the wider array of faiths and practices.

This doesn’t just tell us something about the qualifications of journalists. It says something depressing about the ability of editors to hire people with the background and the knowledge that allow them to cover world events intelligently. With some significant and honorable individual exceptions, the mainstream press today lacks the expertise it needs to assess and report some of the most important stories on the planet.

Indeed.