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Journalism used to be a zero sum game: Either I made the front page or you did—and even then there wasn't enough space. Mostly editors didn't “get” our stories; sometimes they completely overlooked our beats. When we knew what they … Continue reading →

Sex, scandal, God and mammon—it's been headline bait since the earliest newspapers. If you know the story of the Prophet Matthias (an 1830s “cult” leader whose religious career ended with a murder trial), you know there's nothing new under the … Continue reading →

New names are in—first we did it, and now my bosses did too. The USC Annenberg School for Communication has added “& Journalism” to its moniker. In both our cases, what does it signify? Two words: entrepreneurship and incentives. And … Continue reading →

by Andrea Tabor I first heard about the Telegraph's “Ahmadinejad is Jewish” exposé on Facebook. The comments came flooding onto my coworker's wall. Among my favorites: “hahahhahahaha oh mannnnnnnnn this is so funny right now to the point where i … Continue reading →

Today may be the first day of the rest of your life, but it's also the first day to savor our new logo. The USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion, a stopgap name, didn't really describe what we do. … Continue reading →

Dollhouse starts its second season, and for those frustrated by the show's one-step-forward-two steps-back approach to currency and complexity, hope abides. Unfortunately, much of that hope is vested in the never-aired but straight-to-video episode 13. Like most of today's best … Continue reading →

I don't have any scientific data to back this up, but it's a safe bet that most Americans are far more interested in the occult than in Methodism, Episcopalianism and Presbyterianism all rolled into one. Think of it like this: … Continue reading →

Mary Travers' obit, in the New York Times and other newspapers nationwide, features a black-and-white photo of a lissome young blonde flanked by two handsome hipsters. Peter, Paul and Mary were an early '60s sensation—affixing  the nascent counterculture's political edge … Continue reading →

Just hours after George Mitchell, the U.S. Middle East envoy, expressed a “sense of urgency” about the Middle East peace process, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu let slip that he would not freeze West Bank settlements—thus defying a key U.S. … Continue reading →

Jerry Falwell never betrayed an iota of irony, reflexivity or doubt. In the decade I spent covering the Religious Right, Pat Robertson once admitted that he didn't really hear God's voice and Jimmy Swaggart would plaintively ask if I still … Continue reading →