Growing up, I played just about every sport I could get my hands on. I loved and love sports for what they taught me as well as what they continue to teach me. In addition to the physical, athletic challenge and growth I experience, sports also taught me and teach me work ethic, teamwork, strategy, healthy competition, balancing preparation and instinct, and, as a huge fan off the field, to stay informed.
As a kid, I learned how to read tables from the sports section’s team schedules and standings. I learned how to follow news by reading articles by team reporters and league insiders. I learned some daily math by calculating statistics, figuring out games back, and parsing free agent contracts. Sports taught me how to consume news.1
Typically, I’d turn to team beat writers, the guys who interviewed players in the clubhouse, watched games from the press box, and had an intimate feel for the team. Next to their reports on the nitty-gritty of the team’s day-to-day were thoughts from columnists -- older writers who probably had experience as reporters and now zoomed out to give voice to broader analysis of the scene. Finally, elsewhere, I could find letters to the editors and op-ed pieces by everyday people reacting to it all. This layered landscape compartmentalized the coverage effectively and helped me separate information from analysis from commentary.
Look no further than the mothership of sports coverage, ESPN, which just massively downsized its stable of excellent writers, with traditional reporter-journalists chief among the casualties.2 Meanwhile, the flagship news show, SportsCenter, is being rebranded to include its hosts’ names, who are narrating fewer and fewer highlights and facilitating more and more takes.3 The core of their talent is now “personalities,” 4 people whose credentials and skill matter less than their ability to infuse volume, extreme opinion, and cheap shots into off-the-cuff riffs on myriad topics. This is what’s become known as a “take.”5
I am not afraid of takes, as I do love a good “barroom argument” or “would you rather” dilemma, but I want it grounded in facts and figures, in empirical evidence, in feet-on-the-ground analysis. I do not want coverage and discussions obsessed with personal criticisms, with unclever word plays, or with getting louder and angrier than ever before. I want the classic friendly banter of Pardon the Interruption and never the flimsy, childish, nonsense of First Take.
Meanwhile, it has been heartening to see the free market offer its corrective, as multiple chapters of The Athletic have sprung up nationwide. As writers are laid off by national companies and shrinking newspapers, this new site is scooping them up, giving them latitude to produce self-started, excellent content, and relying on faithful, grateful readers to commit their support with a modest subscription price. Eschewing takes in favor of statistical analysis, collaborative writing, and God-bless-it, good-old-fashioned beat reporting, this new venture is kicking butt. I did a trial subscription, and I will likely take the plunge as a subscriber soon.
Meanwhile, across the broader news landscape, the New York Times and Washington Post have seen a surge in subscriptions as President Trump has blasted them, and NPR endures as a bastion of journalistic excellence, with local listener-members sustaining its work.
My hope is that we as people of faith can commit similarly to those outlets that help us stay informed in matters of faith and our Church. Across the news landscape, there are many great sources that help us stay informed in matters of our faith. And if we commit to supporting them, we can help prevent the take-ification of religion news (and, God forbid, of religion) in this climate.
One of my goals for limiting and purifying my social media intake is to include these sources in my feeds. They help me not get bogged down in takes, in silly time-wasters (which are good but must be limited), and in content that comes from extremes. I never want my faith to be compartmentalized, because Catholicism’s greatness is its ability to be relevant to anything and everything all the time. These sources help suffuse thoughtfulness and spirituality into the time I spend on social media and keep me grounded in faith while sauntering in these media realms.
A few of my favorites:
+ America Magazine. This Jesuit publication definitely has some opinion pieces in addition to its news, but pieces are specifically headlined and categorized so that you know into what area the article fits. Among their excellent content, Mike O’Loughlin writes, hands-down, the best US Catholicism beat articles out there. He is a must-follow on Twitter, and the magazine keeps a good feed going, too.
+ Crux. Initially an enterprise of The Boston Globe, it was acquired by Knights of Columbus and continues to provide thorough coverage of Catholic news worldwide, including a reporter from Rome. They’re on Twitter, too. I don’t read every article (it’s not all gold), but my favorite there is Charlie Camosy, who is especially insightful on life ethics and political implications.
+ Millennial Journal. This is a blog founded by millennials that produces original content from writers in their 20s and 30s as well as curates a good mix of religious, social, and political content from around the web. Its editor Robert Christian is a good Twitter follow, as well as their main feed.
+ Religion beat writers. Many of the major publications have people dedicated to the religion beat who produce quality content themselves and do a nice job curating the best work of their peers. A few good ones:
+ Catholic Relief Services. They have an amazing website, lots of subcategories, and tons of social media accounts that you can parse to choose your content. They are especially excellent at connecting you to political advocacy as justice issues arise for which you may want to speak up.
+ Local coverage. Keep tabs on your diocese and parish with the best of their news. In Chicago, we have a publication called Chicago Catholic that has a nice website and an email newsletter with a nice survey of local stories.
+ A small dose of thoughtful individuals,6 who may offer mild, limited, measured takes:
+ Religion beat writers. Many of the major publications have people dedicated to the religion beat who produce quality content themselves and do a nice job curating the best work of their peers. A few good ones:
- Sarah Pulliam Bailey of The Washington Post
- Elizabeth Dias of Time Magazine
- Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times
+ Catholic Relief Services. They have an amazing website, lots of subcategories, and tons of social media accounts that you can parse to choose your content. They are especially excellent at connecting you to political advocacy as justice issues arise for which you may want to speak up.
+ Local coverage. Keep tabs on your diocese and parish with the best of their news. In Chicago, we have a publication called Chicago Catholic that has a nice website and an email newsletter with a nice survey of local stories.
+ A small dose of thoughtful individuals,6 who may offer mild, limited, measured takes:
- Tim O’Malley: Tim’s a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame and specializes in liturgical theology. Also he’s witty and has a beautiful family.
- Rachel Held Evans: She’s a Christian author and speaker who reflects carefully on social trends, politics, and matters of church -- and she’s a new mom!
- Kathryn Jean Lopez: She’s a Catholic author and speaker who shares nice, short reflections and quotes from her reading and travels and writes periodically for a few outlets, too.
- Fr. James Martin, SJ: Jim is thorough, always posting and writing everywhere. He’s great for the Church with his visibility and accessibility, but he takes a bit of getting used to, as good as he is.
1 I also loved the weather map, with its color-coded temperatures, key of symbols for pressure fronts and storm belts, and lists of numbers and places.↩
2 I loved reading a lot of those great writers, but seeing the great Jayson Stark get laid off especially killed a piece of my childhood.↩
3 The late night SportsCenter with Van Pelt became more like Fallon and Colbert (in format and tone, though SVP is smarter than Fallon) than anything, and SC6 with Michael and Jemele basically just extends the afternoon block of shouting shows beyond Le Batard, Around the Horn, and PTI to another level with those two.
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4 Dubiously trail-blazed by the ever-louder Stephen A. Smith, these “personalities” don’t necessarily have any credentials or tact. They are just somehow deemed talented at opining in a sensational way about the goings-on.↩
5 One could consider this the LaVar Ball-ification of sports news. Coverage is increasingly focused on things other than the actual games themselves.↩
6 Rob adds: “A few more that I find to be good follows: Katie Prejean McGrady (@katieprejean), Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti), C.C. Pecknold (@ccpecknold), Audrey Assad (@audreyassad).”↩
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