TV Ignores Religion, Study Shows : Media: Watchdog group claims that among 18,000 stories on evening news shows, only 212 involved theology.

A study by a conservative media watchdog group concludes that the nation’s major television networks virtually ignore religious news.

The study, by the Media Research Center of Alexandria, Va., found that of more than 18,000 stories on network evening news shows in 1993, only 212 were religion stories.

Religion fared even worse on morning news shows, with 197 of more than 23,000 stories, and on burgeoning magazine shows such as “20/20,” “Prime Time Live” and “48 Hours,” which aired 18 segments on religion in 1993.

“An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God and attend church or synagogue at least twice a month,” L. Brent Bozell, III, chairman of the Media Research Center, told a news conference Wednesday in releasing the report.

“But religious issues are hardly ever mentioned, much less covered on network television morning, evening and magazine shows,” he said.

“We never see the good things religious groups are doing, whether it’s helping the homeless, the abused, or homosexuals suffering from AIDS.

“Instead, both religion and religious leaders are portrayed as cold, intolerant and oppressive,” Bozell said. “Worse yet, their enemies are given immediate credibility through media exposure, no matter how lacking the basis for their charges.”

Also at the news conference were Ralph Reed, executive director of the political activist Christian Coalition, founded by evangelical television broadcaster Pat Robertson, and Thomas Wykes, executive director of the Catholic Campaign for America.

For the evening news programs, the study looked at ABC’s “World News Tonight,” “CBS Evening News,” CNN’s “World News,” NBC’s “Nightly News” and “The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour” on PBS.

Those shows aired only 212 religion stories during 1993, the study says. Of those, 134 were reporter-narrated and the other 78 were brief stories, such as wire services provide, read by news anchors.

Fifty-three of the 212, or 25%, came during Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United States in August.

The report says Roman Catholicism was the subject of an overwhelming majority of the nightly news stories--79 of the 134 reporter-assembled segments, and 47 of the 78 stories read by anchors.

In second place were general references to religion, including segments on Supreme Court church-state cases and the religious right.

“Stories on specific Protestant denominations were rare,” the study said. “In fact, Islam, with four reporter-based stories and one anchor brief, gained more coverage than Jews (3), the Greek Orthodox church (2), Lutherans (1), Baptists (1), Presbyterians (1) and Unitarians (1).”

The study did not include the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Tex., or the World Trade Center bombing, except for the stories dealing specifically with the religion or theology involved, Bozell said.

ABC, which recently became the first network to hire a full-time religion reporter, had the highest per-hour average of religion coverage and did more than twice as many stories (22) as any of the other networks. NBC was second, and CBS covered the fewest religion stories of the three biggest networks, with 31.

Bozell was especially critical of the fact that of the religion stories covered, 25 related to the allegations of sexual abuse in a lawsuit filed--but recently dropped--against Chicago’s Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

The report also criticizes network coverage of the volatile social issues of abortion and homosexuality, saying the networks focused heavily on what the report terms “the abortion rights agenda” and the “gay agenda.”

The study recommends that the networks begin hiring religion reporters, especially religious people, to cover religion news and that it end the “good news is no news” mentality that “ignores the positive role of churches in America today.”