Did you hear about Capt. Phillips' pastor?

No wait….did you hear anything in the media coverage of Capt. Richard Phillips’ pirate ordeal about his faith, or church attendance?

That’s the point Get Religion makes here, that’s it’s a glaring omission.


I was pretty sure at this point in the story that
Phillips must not be religious. Surely if the man worships God it would
get mentioned somewhere near his worship of Boston sports teams. There
is so much detail about the man’s life — how he is viewed by neighbors,
former classmates, family members and friends — and not a single word
about anything religious. We learn about his upbringing, his charity,
his regular life, his family, his love of music. No stone, seemingly,
is left unturned.

They’re referring to that New York Times piece. But then, along comes this AP article, and we’re hearing about the pastor and his homily on Easter Sunday.

Which leads Get Religion to help readers by stating the obvious:


This AP story is great but what absolutely shocked me
was that The Times piece was reported on by five reporters and yet the
story giving us all the details about Phillips’ life back home didn’t
include anything about his church home? How does that happen?

It’s all in who’s doing the reporting. One AP reporter with
integrity and professional skills in good journalism can render a far
greater account than a whole team of New York Times staffers intent on
presenting a narrative that fits their agenda.

Does that paper still claim to cover “All the news that’s fit to print”?

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