What's really in the Recorder
By Tony W. Cartledge
BR Editor
We get lots of feedback at the Biblical Recorder, and I'm grateful for that. Both criticism and compliments are welcome, and we get both. One of the most common complaints I hear is that the Recorder has a bias against the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and prints too many articles about the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
I admit to several biases: we are biased toward covering Baptist news with integrity, in a way that honors Christ. We are biased toward "Baptistness" at its best. And, we are biased toward coverage of the Baptist State Convention (BSC), with which we are affiliated.
The Biblical Recorder has no official relationships other than with the BSC and its churches, and with our readers.
For those who care about the truth, I surveyed the 27 printed issues of the Recorder for 2005. During that period, we carried 328 news or feature stories, not counting stories on the "Church News" and "Church Leader" pages (usually on pp. 4-5), which are purely devoted to N.C. Baptist churches and the BSC.
Of those 328 stories, 204 were directly related to the BSC, its ministries, and its ministry partnerships. That's 62 percent. If the N.C. news on pp. 4-5 were included, more than 75 percent of our news content would be N.C. focused, which is appropriate. The Recorder is the official news journal of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. BSC news, whether positive or negative, is our primary beat. With bonus coverage on our Website, one can safely say that the Recorder has never provided more N.C. Baptist news, and in a more timely fashion, than now.
Back to those news stories: of the 328 stories on the main news pages, 57 of them related directly to the SBC (17 percent); 33 related to Baptist life in other states or in other parts of the world (10 percent); 15 had CBF national or CBFNC as the primary subject (5 percent); and 19 (6 percent) dealt with subjects, such as our series on technology in the church, that weren't specifically Baptist.
Those numbers are typical of most years.
Of course, we don't base stories on meeting any sort of artificial quota based on the percentage of churches or individuals that favor a particular point of view. We cover the news that we believe will best inform North Carolina Baptists, period.
Occasionally, I also hear a comment from someone who thinks we make too much use of Associated Baptist Press (ABP), to the detriment of Baptist Press (BP). Commenting on the relative journalistic value of one versus the other is a subject for another time: Baptist Press has heavy public relations and opinion-shaping responsibilities for the SBC in addition to providing news content, which makes the bureau's job as an objective news-broker exceedingly difficult. Both BP and ABP carry far more news relative to national politics than we have any use for. When multiple versions of a story are available, we use the one we believe provides the most accurate and/or objective coverage. Sometimes we combine elements from both and rewrite the story.
In any case, of the stories we printed in 2005, 142, or 43 percent, were written entirely by the Recorder staff, and another 23, or 7 percent, were stories to which our staff contributed. That's about half of the total number of stories.
BSC Communications provided 29 stories, or 9 percent, in addition to the material on the Church Leader page. Communications departments from N.C. Baptist colleges, institutions and agencies, along with other organizations and individual contributions, provided 63 stories, or 19 percent of our news content.
As for national news services, 34 stories (10 percent) carried a BP byline, 31 (9 percent) were from ABP, and 5 (2 percent) were from Religion News Service.
On page two, 16 of 55 editorial or "Intrigued" columns dealt with the BSC (29 percent), while two addressed issues in the SBC and one addressed an issue related to CBF. Most of the columns (29, or 53 percent) addressed other issues or were devotional in nature. No one who reads it can question that the overall tenor of the editorial page has been a persistent call for N.C. Baptists to love each other, try to understand each other, respect each other, and work together.
On page three, where we post guest columns and letters, the proportion of letters on any given subject or from any particular viewpoint reflect accurately the letters we receive.
As we continue the work we've been called to do, any number of things may be said about the Biblical Recorder and its content. That's okay with me. I just hope those who care to share an opinion actually read the paper, and know whereof they speak.
