News with Nuance: Nov. 22, 2024

Your Friday dose of News with Nuance: the week's biggest stories, unpacked + more ..

Hi Readers,

I think today’s News with Nuance post marks the end of an era of sorts. I wrote earlier this month (post-election) that I was, once again, reevaluating the places where I get most of my news and information.

I guess it’s a little bit frustrating that this has to become a frequent endeavor, evaluating the reliability and honesty of news organizations and journalists, but I think that’s truly the mark of our current era. And to neglect to do so, to read without steadfast attention paid to our sources and their allegiances, is irresponsible and also ultimately dissatisfying. No one likes to be implicated in spreading conspiracy theories or, as some of us did the morning after Election Day, finding out that some of our most-trusted sources were compromised or at least dreadfully inaccurate on at least some of their main points.

(By the way, as you read this, I welcome you to do the same with my own content: feel free to evaluate my own sources and trust-ability as I attempt to share openly and faithfully with you).

This past January marked the first big change in my news consumption, as I unsubscribed to the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, both of which I’d read daily and faithfully for almost 15 years. That was a tough decision, and as you’ll note in these newsletters, I do know that very fine journalists continue to produce important stories for both outlets. But in both cases, their billionaire ownership caused very real declines in how these organizations can do journalism, and I preferred to direct my spending dollars toward more independent sources.

A similar big change is something you’ll note in this edition of News with Nuance. I have been active on Twitter (X) since first joining around 2009. Now, when I first joined Twitter, I actually had an additional account called NDN_AngelaDenker, which referred to my time as a sports reporter for the NDN (Naples Daily News). This is when journalists were just starting to become more active on social media, and we were learning as we went.

Actually looking back now, I’m grateful to have learned my reporting skills in an era before social media became dominant in the journalism landscape. I see far too many reporters today who are ill-equipped to actually talk to and interview sources in real life, because they’ve viewed reporting almost entirely as a task of talking to people on social media (which bears very little resemblance to real-life conversation!) More on that in our Christian Nationalism/Rebuilding Trust sections below.

All that being said, post-2024 U.S. Presidential Election, I am transitioning away from spending as much time on X. Part of that is due to its own billionaire ownership, by prominent Trump supporter Elon Musk, whose algorithms have promoted pro-Trump content and suppressed other content, especially from journalists, something I’ve experienced firsthand.

The other reason, though, is that I watched in real time how ill-equipped that site has become as a place of conversation, building understanding, knowledge, or community. You’ll notice in this newsletter still a number of posts I will share from the immediate post-election days on X, where people were starting to reckon with the role of Christian Nationalism (and how it impacted both Democrats and Republicans) in the election. But very quickly, that conversation went from a helpful one to one where accounts (many of whom had been proved wrong in their pre-election analysis) were desperately scrambling to maintain followers and importance. There was little room for real reflection and conversation.

During this time, I was invited by Bethel Seminary professor Andy Rowell to move more of my attention and engagement to the new social media/news-focused platform, BlueSky, which functioned more like Twitter used to.

I was extremely hesitant to embark onto a new social platform, at a time when all of us are trying to get off of our phones/screens as much as possible. However, I have also deeply valued the connections I’ve made, especially with fellow scholars, activists, and faith leaders, around conversation about Christian Nationalism, on social platforms. I had long ago created a profile on BlueSky through another friend’s invitation, so I just had to click over to check it out. Now certainly, there still exists those on BlueSky who are desperate for attention and to incite anger and rage and fear. But I will say that their posts don’t seem to get the same traction. And there’s an increased ability to connect with people in your areas of study and interest. And an easier ability to share off-site links.

So that’s where I’m planning to transition more of my to-the-minute news coverage and reactions. I hope you’ll follow me over there if you’re interested! I will still keep my account on Twitter, because it remains a place to follow news: but I will do so with a lot more skepticism and a lot more desire to be on the app as little as possible, and to share most of my own content elsewhere.

All that being said - today marks a change in how I’m attempting to share the News with Nuance with you. Today is also the last time I’ll segment our newsletter in the way I have for months now, with two top stories, then more general stories, then a section on Christian Nationalism, and then Rebuilding Trust and Substack Top Reads.

I won’t be changing everything entirely in the months ahead, but here is my plan. I’m going to take off December for News with Nuance and focus more on my Sunday Stretch articles for Advent, as well as a year-end reading wrap-up article. I hope you enjoy those focus areas leading up to Christmas and the New Year. Then, in January, we will restart News with Nuance on the second and fourth Fridays of the month: with an increased focus not just on Christian Nationalism but also on masculinity, gender, and what’s happening socially, politically, internally, among young boys and men, which is the focus of my forthcoming book. I am so looking forward to sharing these stories and research with you, and examining how the ideas and stories from that book are playing out in the news of the day, and of course in our own families and communities.

It’s true that this past month has not been particularly easy. My fall was intense and busy in attempting to sound the alarm about the growth of Christian Nationalism and authoritarianism in American politics. Trump’s election and incoming administration will continue to grow and enrich that threat among us, and globally authoritarianism and religious extremism continues to foment violence, disorder, chaos, and suffering. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I continued to work as a sportswriter instead! But the truth is, it is a privilege to do this work at such a time as this, and I am most grateful to know I do this work with you all by my side.

Let’s get to the news … with nuance!

The Headline: He was a huge Korean TV star. Now he’s broke and lives in an amusement park

Photo by Jean Chung, Los Angeles Times

Maybe this seems an odd, even absurd article to lead with here today.