4PM Is good journalism dead?

In the newest Time magazine cover story, “Is Hell Dead?” Jon Meacham writes about the controversy surrounding Rob Bell’s book “Love Wins.” Unfortunately for Meacham’s readers, what is mostly a pretty fair description of the book and the controversy suddenly drives off the pier of journalistic integrity when he decides to casually inject the following paragraph:

“Like the Bible — a document that often contradicts itself and from which one can construct sharply different arguments — theology is the product of human hands and hearts. What many believers in the 21st century accept as immutable doctrine was first formulated in the fog and confusion of the 1st century, a time when the followers of Jesus were baffled and overwhelmed by their experience of losing their Lord; many had expected their Messiah to be a Davidic military leader, not an atoning human sacrifice.“

Now, it’s certainly true that some people view the Bible as an often self-contradictory document, just as it’s certainly true that some people believe that theology is the product of (read flawed/limited) human hands and hearts. But this is neither the only view nor even the dominant view among the people for whom Rob Bell’s book is controversial. And if Jon wants to take a position in the discussion, it would be more honest to do it by stating that he sides explicitly with Biblical liberals and endorses “their view” that the Bible is contradictory and humanly flawed or limited. But to pretend to be reporting on a story and to then include as almost an aside such a biased insertion really betrays the useful function of journalism to inform rather than to proselytize. I don’t know which is more troubling: that Jon holds this view or that he thinks it so normative that he wouldn’t even flinch at stating it so unassumingly. I know I shouldn’t be surprised to find this in Time, but my naïve expectation for any major publication is that they might be capable of avoiding this sort of error.