Recently in Media Category

At By Common Consent, an interview with Michael Otterson, the head of media relations for the LDS Church. Not an easy job. Here are a few quotes from the online interview.

The LDS Church has always promoted the use of new technology to spread its message. It is now rolling out online radio, broadcasting LDS content (produced on Temple Square and at the various BYU campuses) 24/7, at The Mormon Chanel: The Official Radio Station of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Teamed with the LDS.org and LDS Newsroom websites, this boosts the ability of the Church to distribute audio and video content to its membership.

The Deseret News carried an article summarizing Boston Globe reporter Michael Paulson's comments at the "Mormonism in the Public Mind" conference being held at UVU this week. According to the article, Paulson thinks "no other faith group is as quick to respond to newspaper coverage as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." The article continues:

He said it's clear many church members are concerned about press coverage on their faith, and besides unusually quick responses to what he writes about the LDS Church, he said he does receive some positive e-mails, too.

In the public discussion of LDS temples, critics often take it for granted that limiting admission to Latter-day Saints in good standing (i.e., doing things "in secret") supports a presumption that there must be something to hide. Conveniently, that presumption, once entertained, can't be convincingly refuted without breaching the privacy of the temple. So how about a different example: see Politico's article on JournoList.

Moving on to Part 2 of the real-life soap opera ... what's the reaction to the "Outer Darkness" Big Love episode that aired Sunday night? Time's TV guy says this:

Part of the controversy over depicting the ceremony, whose details the LDS church prefers to keep among its own members, has to do with how the ceremony is received by outsiders .... As an outsider, ... I don't believe the ceremony qua ceremony changed my perception of the Mormon faith one way or another. It was definitely unusual, but that's religion: I'm the product of two religious traditions, in one of which somebody changes bread into someone's body and feeds it to you, in the other of which someone ritually blows into a ram's horn. It's all relative, no?