This Washington Post story is a classic example of the chicken and egg game that reporters and media relations folks like myself play all the time. The headline says the religious left is gaining “visibility.” But visibility is largely the media’s to bestow or withhold. So today the religious left is more visible in Washington than it was yesterday in large measure because the Washington Post has said so. So the headline could easily read: We write about religious left.
Don’t get me wrong. I am delighted that they have written this story.
(I think that in leaving out the role that the leaders of the mainline Protestant denominations played in the campaign that almost derailed last year’s morally repugnant and profoundly anti-Christian federal budget, they missed the one instance so far in which religious leaders with the ability to speak directly to people in the pews–as opposed to those who can only get their message out through the media–actually came close to accomplishing something. But that is another story. Or, actually, a non-story, since stories aren’t stories until they are written. Which brings me full circle.)
Where was I? Oh, yeah. I am delighted that they wrote this story, but it is a prime example of those peculiar cases in which it is hard to tell whether they media is discerning a trend, or creating one. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if, on the heels of this Post story leaders of the religious left found themselves receiving more invitations to appear on talk shows, ahd an easier time getting op-eds published, etc. This wouldn’t be because the religious left was measurably more visible in our society–the folks who book talk shows don’t have the time to do that sort of reporting–it would be because the religious left was more visible in the media. (The religious right has benefitted from this dynamic for two decades. It also benefits from the media’s perception that the religious right has the power ot make things happen –Washington journalism is always in some way about power– whereas the religious left does not.)
Anyway, as the religious left gains more “visibility” I think we can expect conservatives to attempt to diminish whatever influence the left might gain by decrying the intrusion of sectarian values into our political life. Sort of like decrying gluttony after you’ve spent twenty years as the only person at the banquet.