Coverage of events and biases found in this coverage can vary greatly from publication to publication. In examining the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of religious and ethical stories, I found that it was not easy to discover articles on these topics. While these was some continuity within the articles on religion, which generally discussed religion through current events, articles directly concerning ethics were scarce and scattered in purpose. These results reflect both the focus of the journal as well as people’s attitudes toward these two topics.
It is somewhat difficult to find a comprehensive list of articles on religion. Religion does not have a section of its own in the periodical. Many of the articles that I was able to find were from the “Life” section. Otherwise, articles could be found by using the search tool to look for religious themes.
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One great article was about the history relations between the Catholic Church and the Muslim world, beginning in the 1900s. Another great commentary was entitled “Who’s Killing India’s Secularism.” It discussed potential reasons that Muslims are so often victimized in India. In recent years, there have been numerous attacks on Muslims within the country. This is surprising given India’s general tolerance to different faiths. The article examined why there was so much intolerance and what kinds of people were leading the anti-Muslim campaigns.
Rather than articles talking about broad religious themes or history, it was much more common to find commentaries and niche stories that directly related to current events. For example, there were numerous articles relating to President Trump’s travel ban that related the order to religious discrimination and intolerance. There were also plenty of articles on his Religious Freedoms Order. Other articles commented on the relationship between ISIS extremists and Muslims. Many articles documented the Pope’s recent visit to Egypt and his speech there which condemned religiously justified violence.
When it came to find quality articles on ethics and ethical discussions, it was a bit more difficult to find useful articles. There were far too many articles that were programmed into the “ethics” tagline on the site. I found articles with topics ranging from Ivanka Trump to Texas Rangers statistics to Los Angeles’ Olympic bid. The most focused article I found discussed the best way to raise teenagers to be good adults in America. Ultimately, there was no clear link that tied these articles together.
I think this is because so much of what we do as a human race is concerned with what we should do. Political leaders, scientific conventions, and the entire legal system are all concerned with the “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” that all stem from our general ethical and moral beliefs. While we have set up a general distinction between church and state in the United States, it is undeniable that religion still influences decisions covertly. Further, many countries have no such distinction. However, worldwide, people can agree that regardless of religious belief, there are certain things that should and should not be done. We can all agree that it is important to establish an ethical basis for decisions to be made and organizations to uphold.
This might also explain why there was no clear “Ethics” section to be found in the Wall Street Journal. Instead, ethics plays into all events and decisions that are made. Even if we are not making decisions based on some ethical principle that is held by society, things that occur within societies demonstrate what kind of ethical beliefs do, in fact, uphold or lack. This is especially true for a publication focused on business, such as the Wall Street Journal, which is generally more concerned with actions and solutions than ideas and ideals. It may have seemed futile, therefore, to try to tease out articles involving ethics into its own section or limit the ethics section to the academic study and discussion on the topic.
