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	Media Sometimes Frustrate Religious People: Cardinal By Bob Seidenberg Evanston Review [Evanston IL] July 28, 2005 The media's constant penchant to look for conflict in stories sometimes drives religious people to be frustrated with the media and feel that journalists aren't covering the most important issues, Cardinal Francis George and other religious leaders said Monday during a symposium in Evanston. Cardinal George and several other religious leaders served as presenters at the symposium on religion and the press at Northwestern University. The gathering was co-sponsored by the Sheil Catholic Center and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. Meanwhile, a number of journalists who regularly cover religion, including NBC News 5's Mary Ann Ahern and Evanston resident Robert McClory, a former Roman Catholic priest and professor emeritus at Medill, served on the media panel, asking questions in between and after the presentations. Cardinal George said the late Pope John Paul II had expressed high ideals for the press in his speeches and encyclicals, talking about the media's role in creating a town square and helping transform the world into a "global village." He said the media, particularly in the last century, has even come to see itself as an "ersatz" church at times, solving society's ills. "If anyone doesn't believe that, take a look at the Tribune Tower," he quipped, eliciting laughter from the audience packed into the McCormick Tribune Center Forum. He admitted, though, that the media's "in-built" penchant for finding conflict in stories "drives religious people to be frustrated with the media." School closings Cardinal George said stories on Catholic funding problems focused on the closing of schools -- sometimes inaccurately fanning concerns -- rather than on what the church was doing to manage the crisis. Similarly, on the sexual abuse scandal involving priests, the media necessarily reported the story about the abuses, which Cardinal George called "deeply perverse" and a "betrayal" to church members. He said some rumors, though, were accepted as true, and the great efforts of the Roman Catholic church to help victims often went unreported. The church and other faiths are centuries old, and have a different relationship with their followers than secular institutions, he said. Perhaps, "we (religion and the press) simply have to live with that (the difference) ... and do the best with it" we can, said the cardinal. To McClory's question that the church isn't always forthcoming with journalists, Cardinal George said the church's role is "keeping people together; that's our job." Church leaders cannot lie and are instructed to be cooperative, the cardinal said, but "what to say, and what not to say, is challenging at times," he admitted. Edith Blumhofer, an expert on the evangelical movement and a professor of history at Wheaton College, said typical media coverage of the evangelical movement portray evangelicals as a "power hungry and a cantankerous lot, always on the lookout for the next political fight." The media, however, overlook the changing face of the movement, she said. A large percentage of evangelicals today came from Asian countries after the Immigration Act of 1965, she said. She said the movement is much more diverse than a label of "an army of militaristic Christ warriors" might suggest. Modern evangelicals voice concern about school reform, the environment and other issues not usually associated with the movement, Blumhofer said. Michael Kozin, executive vice president of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and Safaa Zarzour, an attorney and member of the Muslim community, both spoke on how the media too often reinforce stereotypes and don't play up their religions positive features. Kozin said "some less-than-common aspects of Judaism" often receive the greatest exposure, while mainstream stories are ignored. Zarzour said there is almost "a fanatic obsession in putting Islamic and terrorism in the same sentence." The terms are automatically grouped together, Zarzour said, even though the vast number of Muslims worldwide are not terrorists.