Getting the Catholic guy

As tmatt wrote recently, Get Religion prefers to cheer rather than jeer reporters. It is not just that reading a first-rate news story is satisfying and grounded in reality. It is inspirational. As all of us have been or are reporters, we want to read stories that inform and compel the public, if only to imitate them. One story that bears imitating is a New York Times profile of “The Catholic Guy” on Sirius Satellite Radio. Reporter Paul Vitello distilled the essence of host Lino Rulli’s show, its mixture of the sacred and profane. Vitello’s lede is a good example: Mike from El Paso was on the phone line to “The Catholic Guy,” the afternoon drive-time talk program produced via the unlikely partnership of Sirius Satellite Radio (familiar to most people as “Howard Stern’s network”) and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New... [read full story]