Intentional omission? The ghost in MSM coverage of reporters held by ISIS

The New York Times reports that Shirley Sotloff, whose son Steven Joel Sotloff is a freelance journalist being held by ISIS, says in a video message to her son's captors: “I ask you to use your authority to spare his life and to follow the example set by the Prophet Muhammad, who protected People of the Book."

It adds that "People of the Book" is ”a reference to Christians and Jews." In some stories online, "Book" has a lower-case "b."

However, look for mention of Steven Sotloff's specific religion in the Times article -- or in coverage of Shirley Sotloff's video in the Miami Herald, the UK Mirror and other mainstream news outlets -- and you won't find it.

At first glance, the omission of Sotloff's faith might seem like a classic "religion ghost" -- a case in which the media fails to "get" the importance of the religion angle to the story. But is it? Or is it an intentional effort on the part of the mainstream media to protect the kidnapped journalist?

An odd alteration to a New York Times story suggests the latter. The lengthy profile of Sotloff that the paper sent out through its wire service originally included reference's to the faith of Sotloff's mother and grandparents. That information does not now appear in the Times online version of the story -- and, unusually for the Times, no note was appended to the piece to indicate that any edits or corrections had been made.

I found out about the original version through a website that republished it in the form in which it was syndicated in the National Post. But if you look at the current version of the story on the National Post's website, it is the same one that now appears on the Times'  site.

Tmatt tells me that he researched media coverage of slain journalist James Foley and found that it appears that the mainstream media did not mention Foley's faith until after ISIS beheaded him. If you know of exceptions to that, please let us know.

In light of the Times' editing its Sotloff story, and in light of the omission of Sotloff's faith from other news outlets' coverage, I have a question for GetReligion readers in the mainstream media: Is there an unspoken policy against revealing the religion of American journalists kidnapped by Islamists, for reasons of the journalists' own safety?

If you answer, please do not identify Sotloff's faith in the comments. If you can, please share URLs to show us specifics.