Mainstream Coverage of the Mainline: A Content Analysis of News Reporting About Intra-Denominational Conflict

Rick Clifton Moore, Boise State University

Abstract

Do news organizations show bias in the way they cover conservative and liberal religious groups? In this study, the question is addressed by examining conservative and religious factions within the American mainline churches rather than attempting to draw data from very disparate conservative and liberal denominations. Data gathered suggest that on two important measures journalists treated religious conservatives and religious liberals very differently.