There are none so blind, as journalists who will not see past their 'blind spot'.

If you are a regular reader of this media review, you will know that I don't believe all reporters are out to get Christians. Some are, that's certainly true. Others give us a fair hearing. The rest either don't understand or don't care.

They just don't 'get' religion.

Instead of reviewing the top media stories of the week, let me tell you about a dinner I've just attended, organised by Christians in the Media and The Media Project, which featured Dr Paul Marshall, international expert on terrorism, the persecuted church and now co-author of this book "Blind Spot, when Journalists Don't Get Religion".

Dr Marshall is a fellow of the Hudson Institute, and along with Lela Gilbert and Roberta Green-Ahmanson has produced a compelling read for people of faith who are distressed at how they are portrayed in newspapers and on tv.

The thesis is simple.

Religion lies at the centre of many of the major news stories in the world today even those usually called secular. Many journalists often do a bad job of covering these stories because they either do not know of the religious element or if they do know, they misunderstand it.

Dr Marshall backs this up with story after story of how the media got it wrong and more than that, missed the major part of stories because they didn't look past their religious blind spot.

Several recent terrorist attacks, including the Bali-bombings, were characterised as attacks against westerners. This ignores the fact that it took place in a hindu-dominated province, there were bombings at the same time in a christian area, and that there had recently been attacks on 36 local churches, where hardly any westerners were hurt.

Rev Dominic Steele, who runs the Christians in the Media ministry, had also invited some leading journalists to respond.

To its credit, the Sydney Morning Herald sent Saturday editor Judith Whelan and Channel Ten news editor Steve Wilson also spoke.

Both were warm to the idea that journalists should receive further training, or at least extra information on the religious make-up of Australian society. They also suggested we should not put down to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetance (my paraphrase). They bemoaned the amount of bad journalism around. 

I still think Dr Marshall is on to something. Click to watch the video and see if you agree.