Yellow Journalism: Alive and Flourishing

Just in time for the Iowa caucus tomorrow, here's something I know you want to read: more articles about religion. Elder Ballard gave a speech a few weeks ago where he stated: "Perhaps now, more than ever, we have a major responsibility as Latter-day Saints to define ourselves, instead of letting others define us." Really--it seems like more and more people who are not Mormons are telling us what we should believe. Isn't that a little weird? Whose to say what we believe except those of us who actually believe it? This fact drives me crazy, especially all those critics, for instance, who negatively re-defined Mitt Romney's beliefs in his Faith of America speech right after Romney explicitly came out and clearly stated his beliefs. If Romney says he believes in Jesus Christ, you can't say that he doesn't believe in Jesus Christ. Romney just said he did. Why do all sorts of people prefer to believe the people who aren't Mitt Romney?

Elder Ballard continued, "There are conversations going on about the church constantly...Those conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot sit on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the church teaches." Elder Ballard mentioned a few ways we can help clear up misconceptions about these conversation:

• Start a blog "and share what you know to be true.
  
• Download videos from official church and other appropriate sites and send them to your friends.
  
• Comment on news media sites that report on the church "and voice your views as to the accuracy of the reports."

While my blog post doesn't set out to address any specific conversation directly, Joel Campbell has compiled a list of such conversations; his article summarizes 2007 nationally published articles written about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and discusses how he rates the outcome of said articles. Some of the articles are just downright ridiculous, especially the one at the end of the opinion section. Who are these people to be calling themselves journalists?