Strange it might be, but Cordoba House has become a major story—at the moment perhaps the biggest story in the country. Inaccurately and misleadingly known as the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy, it has been fed not by any news peg, but by talk. Talk on cable news, talk in newspaper columns, talk on blogs, and, notably, talk from politicians, including the president. Now, the nation is talking.
With no hard news peg or new developments beyond the latest “talk”, but an insatiable demand for more coverage, we’re left wondering how to cover the controversy in a fresh, intelligent, and enlightening way. So our News Meeting question today is this: You’re an assigning editor and, like it or not, Cordoba House is a story. How do you cover it? What is your angle? And what do you tell your reporter to report?
The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.