GET RELIGION
December 29, 2018
By Bobby Ross Jr.
I write more than 200 posts a year for GetReligion.
My pieces range from our bread-and-butter critiques of mainstream news media coverage of religion to our weekly Friday Five columns highlighting each week’s major (or just plain quirky) developments on the Godbeat.
At the end of each year, I’m always curious to see which posts caught the attention of the most readers.
What makes a GetReligion post go viral? In 2017, key ingredients included Joel Osteen, same-sex wedding cakes and the Mark of the Beast. The previous year — 2016 — Donald Trump’s “Two Corinthians,” Merle Haggard’s Church of Christ mama and a rare opening of a Chick-fil-A on Sunday were in the mix.
2018? Well, let’s check out the top five posts for GetReligionista Julia Duin, GetReligion editor Terry Mattingly and myself.
We’ll start with Julia, for reasons that will become obvious:
5. How journalists can nail down the rest of the Cardinal McCarrick story – for good
4. Cardinal Ted McCarrick, Part II: The New York Times takes a stab at this old story
3. Catholic News Agency pulls off investigative coup in the ‘Uncle Ted’ McCarrick saga
2. Another #ChurchToo: The Chicago Tribune investigates Bill Hybels in 6,000 words
1. The scandal of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and why no major media outed him
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