Fox News Attacks NPR, Wicca

National Public Radio ran a story on "Prayer Booths" that have been displayed as an art project in several U.S. cities. In the story, the president of an athiest organization just happened to be walking in the area and the reporter interviewd him - along with several other passers by - about his reactions to the prayer booths. Listen to the story for yourself before going further, please.

First, Newsbusters attacked the report as a biased attack on religion. Then, Fox News joined in on the attack. Was the story biased? No. Was the story calling for dismantlement of the displays? No. It was a story reporting the facts and getting several different viewpoints about the displays and talking about the artist. What, then, does Newsbusters and Fox have against the NPR story? They dared to have a Wiccan reporter cover the story!

"A pagan priestess runs into the president of the atheists in a phone booth in New York.

No, it's not a joke — it's the start of a controversial report from National Public Radio — and your tax dollars may have paid for it." - Fox News

I started following the story from a post on The Wild Hunt, a pagan blog. I was disappointed to see the attack on NPR for daring to hire a Wiccan to do reporting. I was dismayed to see the so-far-right-its-not-funny national Fox News take up the unwarranted attack. The ironic thing is that they decrie the story as being a religious attack, yet they attack the religion of the reporter as their main objection to the story.

I, for one, applaud NPR for being non-discriminatory in their hiring practices and would like to point out that in fact it is only Newsbusters and Fox News being religiously intolerant in this story.