TV STUDY Religious issues get more media coverage

'The Passion,' the pope and sexual abuse garnered most of the attention.
NEW YORK (AP) -- TV news coverage of religious issues has risen sharply compared with a decade ago, according to a study released Monday.
The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts did 303 stories on religion during the 12 months that ended March 1, compared with 121 stories during a one-year period in 1993, the Media Research Center said.
Coverage also increased on the morning news shows (197 in 1993, 331 the past year) and on newsmagazines and Sunday morning interview shows, the media watchdog group said.
"I think the uptick is notable," said Tim Graham, the study's author. "I would not predict that it will remain."
Issues
The increase was attributable to Gibson's box-office smash "The Passion of the Christ" and the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's reign as well as coverage of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, the struggle over a Ten Commandments monument in an Alabama courthouse and controversies over gay ministers, the report said.
NBC News executives have taken note of surveys that show substantial public interest in religious issues, said Bill Wheatley, NBC News vice president.
Besides the interest generated by "The Passion," viewers want to know more about Islam in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq, he said.
Still, none of the three major broadcast networks employ full-time religion correspondents -- and virtually never have.
The first and last person to fill that role, Peggy Wehmeyer, worked for ABC News until leaving a few years ago. Her duties were transferred to Dan Harris and Bill Blakemore, said Paul Slavin, ABC News senior vice president.
"I think sometimes we're a little late on major religious stories, or as angles in stories that have a religious component," he said. "But we certainly make it clear that it's important to the news organization."
Religious programming
ABC's Peter Jennings is particularly interested in the topic, and the network took the extraordinary step of devoting three hours of prime time Monday to Jennings' report on Jesus Christ and his disciple, Paul.
The success of "The Passion of the Christ" and the Passover and Easter holidays has led to a flurry of religious-oriented programming generated by both the networks' news and entertainment divisions.
Besides the Jennings special, "Dateline NBC" ran "The Last Days of Jesus" and has already repeated it once.
In addition, CBS last month reran "Jesus," a made-for-TV movie that originally aired four years ago. ABC presented a TV movie on Judas and, for the 24th time since 1973, showed the 1956 feature film "The Ten Commandments."
The Media Research Center, a conservative-oriented group, has complaints with the way many religious stories are reported. The group says the networks are often hostile to orthodox faiths and use mostly liberal religious scholars.
"Religious people get excited to see religion is more in the news, but the more they see it, they ask, 'Is this such a good thing?'" Graham said.