Listen: PBS’ Lawton: ‘The Faith Community Is Very Suspicious of the Media’

By kevin 

PBS’ Kim Lawton, managing editor and chief news correspondent for PBS’s Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, joined co-hosts Matt Van Hoven and Jason Boog on the Mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu for a great conversation about religion reporting and the top stories she’s working on.

The beat has taken her across the world — including to Sri Lanka after the tsunami where she and her driver had to beware of the wild elephants on the road — but it’s often challenging.

“We’re talking about people’s deepest held beliefs and they do get pretty nervous when you start asking them about them,” she said. “It’s a delicate line. I think a lot of faith communities have the idea that the media is out to get them.”

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On the Menu, Lawton discusses everything from challenges for the Muslim community to how faith is playing a role in the Obama administration to what people are saying about Christmas carols.

(Note: We’ve already given Matt a hard time for accidentally saying it was “Wednesday, November 4th” even though the interview happened yesterday, but feel free to do so yourself at AgencySpy.com.)

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