If I were in charge of journalism...

I just wanted to tell you all abut the start of a new series which is what all journalism would be like if I were omnipotent broadcasting doctator. The show is More of Less on Radio 4, which can be down loaded as a podcast from their site. It bills itself as a show to looking behind the statistics we hear on the news.

This week was an example of the intelligent, reasonable journalism it exemplifies. They tackled drugs and religion without the need for shouting matches or hyperbole. They brought on the author of a study estimating the costs of drugs prohibition. He immediately admitted to the limitations of any kind of study of this kind and that his figures were highly speculative. They couldn't get anyone from the home office to speak against him so they brought in another academic from the field, whose main criticism was that he didn't feel that the 'worst case scenario' from the study was bad enough as one could argue that heroin consumption might more than double if it were legalised. They then had a very reasonable and accessible discussion about how one could estimate the effects of legalisation upon consumption, compare usage across countries, compare usage across substances or look at historical events like China during the opium wars.

On to religion, and the figures quoted about church attendance and how newspapers managed to come up with the idea that Muslims would outnumber Anglicans in England in a few decades. The different ways of measuring Church of England members were explained leading to the less exciting revelation that Church of England attendance has pretty much levelled out, after a sharp decline a decade or so ago, and anyone who thinks that half of all English Muslims regularly attend the mosque should go and speak to an average imam.

Just for fun there were some bizarre allegories for the credit crunch and correcting a former minister for education about his maths.

My top ten most commented upon public posts

I've realised looking back over my blog that I don't get many comments, I think I probably average fewer than one per post. Anyway, on a lazy Sunday afternoon I looked back to see what had received the most comments and thought I share with you the ten most commented upon public posts on my blog.

10. Three posts received 17 comments each. They were:
17th April 2007Frum /= ring-wing A post about how I was annoyed that in most people's minds religious orthodoxy is synonymous with being politically right wing.
19th November 2007Untitled A post comparing chastity with refraining from bacon.
16th March 2009Can 'good Jews' marry out? A post about how most discussion of intermarriage in the Jewish community assumed that Jews with non-Jewish partners are outside of the fold of committed Jews and how this view is both inaccurate and damaging.

7. Two posts received 18 comments each. They were:
20th May 2008 Virginity A post about how I really didn't get lots of pop cultural ideas about virginity.
27th October 2008 Confident A post about how I found it odd that some people viewed the concept of 'confidence' with women taking their clothes off.

5. Two posts received 19 comments each. They were:
5th August 2008 Mikvah Decisions A post about where I should immerse before my wedding.
5th October 2008 Oh no, not another post about abortion A post about why mainstream feminists have such difficulty engaging with pro-life ideas.

3. 22nd June 2008 Untitled A post about non-religious people wanting to get married in religious buildings and being outraged at requirements placed on them to fit with the religion.

2. 20th November 2007 Homosexuality and Religion A post critiquing some of the main arguments used to condone homosexuality.

1. 4th Novemeber 2007 Getting miffed with the media's coverage of debate about abortion A post about my annoyance at opposition to abortion always being portrayed as a religious position.

So there you go.