Journalists Turn Palin into Media Celebrity, But Dodge the Relevancy of Her Religious Faith

As I wrote earlier today, how Sarah Palin’s devout Pentecostal faith colors her views on complex policy problems such as Iraq or climate change is a relevant question that journalists should be asking.

Yet as a Pew analysis released this week finds, although Palin has dominated campaign coverage since the GOP convention (top), few if any stories in the mainstream media have examined the relevancy of her religious faith (bottom). The exception, as Pew observes, is the Evangelical media, which have triumphantly celebrated one of their own ascending to a place on the GOP ticket.

For example, according to Pew, in a cover article at the World Magazine, reporter Mark Bergin observed favorably that:

“In many ways, Palin’s faith and political philosophy developed in concert. Her small-government commitment, perhaps even libertarian streak, stems from belief in personal responsibility. Her pro-life views flow from a conviction that all of humanity possesses dignity and equal value no matter how small or frail. She has expressed support for teaching alternative theories of origins alongside Darwinism in public-school classrooms, especially theories that allow for a creator.”