God Save the Trib — From Itself

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jan 4, 2008 7:49PM

Not sure how we missed Trib public editor Timothy McNulty in our Beard-Off yesterday (round two coming up?), but he's sure on our minds today. He's taking the controversial position that "journalists should recognize their weak spots and moments of unintentional bias when dealing with religion and morality."

A mere one paragraph later, he commits the exact mistake he's warning others not to make. He says the Trib headline about Subhash Chander should not have read "Grandfather charged in blaze that killed 3" but rather that it "killed 4" because one of the victims was pregnant. But the Trib style guide says not to refer to fetuses as people, and McNulty doesn't present anything remotely compelling for why the headline, which correctly refers to the number of people who died, should be different. Could it be that maybe his religious beliefs are informing his definition of life and personhood? That's fine — that's what religious beliefs do. But don't pretend like that's not what's happening.

Plus who's he going to ask for guidance, his newspaper's religion blogger The Seeker, who yesterday discovered

"Oh, my God!" seems to have evolved into something a little less taboo over the years.

What are you, on Rumspringa, lady? OMG "seems" to have a evolved? And where is the outrage targeting T.G.I. Fridays? Still, at least the Seeker does post some OK content now and then. Not so for Divinity and Beyond, the Sun-Times' stab at God blogging.