The Media and Kyle Rittenhouse

I’m not going to offer any commentary on whether the jury verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case was right, wrong, or something in between.  But something struck me about the entire incident. 

Virtually no one, other than a tiny handful of people, saw what happened on the night of Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Not one of the talking heads on the networks was there. Virtually no reporters were in the vicinity. Few police officers were in the area. The people who censor on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were (mostly) in California. Each of us who read, saw, or heard the story on Aug. 26 (and months afterward) were nowhere near Kenosha. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Photograph by William Topa via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Saturday Good Reads

Earlier this week, we finished watching The ABC Murders on Prime Video, starring John Malkovich as Agatha Christie’s famous detective Hercule Poirot. It was a dark version of the original story, with an origin for Poirot that wasn’t in the author’s books. But it was an excellent production. 

I must have been 10 or 11 when I started reading mystery stories by Agatha Christie. She wrote some 66 mystery novels and 14 short story collections, and even three collections of poetry. But it’s her novels for which she’s best remembered. Today, the Christie mysteries are classified in the genre of “cozy mystery.” Lucy Foley at CrimeReads argues for a different classification, that the stories told by the grande dame of mystery are anything but cozy. She makes a good case.

There’s a lot of talk about socialism these days, and a lot of talk about green new deals and whether it’s less about green and more about socialism. Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder looks at what is being criticized – capitalism – and asks whether capitalism is really based on greed, or whether it comes from something else. At Christianity Today, Eric Miller reviews a new book about theology and capitalism that takes on what the author calls “finance-dominated” capitalism.

In the Department of "Best Laid Plans Oft Go Awry," Jan Askonas at The New Atlantis has a longish discussion of what happened when algorithms replaced people in curating news and social media. And the short answer is - a fostering of tyranny.

More Good Reads

Art and Photography

How Van Gogh's Sunflowers have inspired generations of British artists – Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper.

In London, a Sculptural Offering to Gods Old and New – Justin Hopper at Image Journal.

Poetry

A Song to the Mansions of Heaven – Nicholas Samaras at Image Journal.

George Moses Horton – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

Cuckold – Joe Spring.

All the Hollowed Shells – James Matthew Wilson at The Imaginative Conservative.

Life and Culture

The Machine Stops – Oliver Sacks at The New Yorker.

Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction – Mairead Small Staid at The Paris Review.

American Stuff

Andrew Jackson: Our First Populist President – Jeff Taylor at The American Conservative.

Defining America – Mark Malvasi at Imaginative Conservative.

Faith

On the Road with Thomas Merton – Fred Bahnson at Emergence Magazine.

Embracing the Dignity of Human Life – Zak Schmoll at Entering the Public Square.

How to Handle Temptation at Work – David Winters at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

British Stuff

Meet My Friend Selina – Tim Challies.

Writing 

9 Reasons to Quite Writing – Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent.

Tumbling Tumbleweeds: Sons of the Pioneers with Roy Rogers

(from the 1944 movie Hollywood Canteen)

Painting: Oil Woman Reading, oil on panel by Jan Lievens (ca. 1628-1633).

Saturday Good Reads

There were other things happening in the world this week besides the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing. This was saturated media coverage at its best and its worst. One aspect of the story that almost all the major media missed was religion -- and Julia Duin has the story.

It was a good week for Tolkien. Zak Schmoll talked about why we need The Lord of the Ringsnow (personally, I think it’s time the Ents went after Washington, D.C.). John Pletcher at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics found some Monday motivation from Tolkien. Loren Paulsson mourned the passing of the elves.

Maggie Smith

The media, social and otherwise, came in for some scrutiny (there can never be enough media scrutiny). NPR got itself caught in not wanting to call an abortion doctor an abortion doctor. Joshua Benton at the Nieman Lab considered what happens when newspapers kill print and go online-only? (Print newspaper readers go away.) Did you know that tech gurus don’t let their kids have smartphones? Jenny McCarthy at The Spectator asked why. Tim Challies looks at applying the 9^thcommandment – thou shalt not bear false witness – to the social media world (well, there go Twitter and Facebook).

Interesting faith stories this week as well. William Black at Aeon suggests there’s a way to fight a “total work culture” – bring back the Sabbath. Thomas Kidd asks if evangelicals were really silent about Roe v. Wade when the decision was handed down. Justin Taylor looks at what an evangelical is (other than the common stereotype). Natasha Crain has 10 signs that the Christian authors you’re following are teaching unbiblical ideas. James Faris at Gentle Reformation has an old, old story about what makes an elder.

And Ann Farmer at The Imaginative Conservative has a poem – about actress Maggie Smith.

More Good Reads

Poetry

The Ordinary Time – Dana Littlepage Smith at Image Journal.

Diane Tucker – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

God in the Trash Fire: Thomas Traherne Endures – Ed Simon at The Millions.

James II

Writing and Literature

The Great Crossover Crime Novel – Stuart Turton at CrimeReads.

British Stuff

The Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 – Morag Edwards at English Historical Fiction Authors.

Beyond the Warrior Queen – Eleanor Parker at History Today. 

Art and Photography

The Sacred Process – Jack Baumgartner at The School for the Transfer of Energy.

Engraved Saddlebags – Tim Good at Photography by Tiwago.

The Gardens Behind Monet’s Masterpieces

Painting: Woman Sitting on a Sofa, Reading; oil on canvas by Henri Lebasque (1920).