Who we are, what we stand for

The Christian Science Monitor is an award-winning international news organization that covers news and feature stories from every corner of the globe. Founded in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the Monitor publishes news around-the-clock on the Web at CSMonitor.com, once a week in print, and daily via an email news briefing. The print weekly and the email news briefing can be subscribed to here.

The Monitor has won hundreds of journalism honors including seven Pulitzer Prizes and more than a dozen Overseas Press Club Awards. The Monitor is recognized for its balanced, insightful take on the news, and for the fresh, independent voice it offers.

With eight foreign bureaus and eight more in the United States - as well as the resources and expertise of dozens of additional journalists worldwide - the Boston-based Monitor provides a comprehensive overview of international and national news and events. While many other news organizations have closed their bureaus overseas, the Monitor remains committed to helping readers better understand issues, trends and newsmakers worldwide with reporters on the ground.

Though begun as a print newspaper, the Monitor has always sought to meet the needs of readers - to stay "abreast of the times," as Mrs. Eddy put it. Today, that means a multiplatform publication with Web, print, and email components.

Monitor journalism can also be found in newspapers that subscribe to the Monitor's syndication service; on the websites of the Monitor's online partners; and on radio and television programs, whenever Monitor reporters share their stories on air.

In addition, Monitor stories are often cited by leading print and broadcast journalists, educators, policy makers, bloggers, and analysts.

When Mary Baker Eddy founded the Monitor in 1908, she provided a mandate for the paper: To injure no man, but to bless all mankind. That motto remains the guiding principle behind the organization's mission today. While the newspaper industry has gone through an extraordinary revolution in recent years, the Monitor's commitment to impartial, responsible reporting remains unchanged.

Just what distinguishes the Monitor from the countless other news outlets that provide news and information today?

Reporting that offers clarity, context and compassion.

Monitor reporters are highly principled, professional journalists who look beyond the headlines to analyze how events affect individuals and communities around the globe and in our own backyards. The Monitor profiles those who are seeking solutions to problems and appeals to those who value our mission of unselfish service. The Monitor cares about people, and in turn offers a vibrant forum for people who care.

Monitor FAQ

How does news differ in each of the three publications (Web, email, and print)?

Think of it this way:

• CSMonitor.com is always on, always updating the news, always providing readers with thoughtful and honest reporting on national and international events. Our reporters and editors, our photographers and graphics artists, are keeping watch on the world as news unfolds.

• Our email news briefing provides a daily summary of the stories that matter, selected by Monitor editors from the constant stream of news they publish. This can be thought of as publication that provides "short articles for busy people," as Mrs. Eddy put it.

• In our print weekly, we go behind the headlines to more deeply examine the issues the world is grappling with. The Monitor weekly is published in a format suited to a part of the week when people have more time to dig into the issues and explore ideas the world is thinking about.

Taken together, the website (CSMonitor.com), the weekly, and the email briefing constitute a multi-platform Christian Science Monitor. All Monitor publications hew to the same standard of providing non-sensational, incisive news designed to help you understand the world and to carry out Eddy's vision of journalism designed to "injure no man but bless all mankind."

What sets Monitor journalism apart from other news coverage available today?

In an age when corporate conglomerates dominate news media, the Monitor's commitment to both public service and international news coverage gives the paper a uniquely independent voice in journalism.

The Monitor strives to provide objective, well-documented coverage that goes beyond the headlines to explain how news affects us all. Many of our readers tell us they turn to the Monitor because they trust our reporting and appreciate our balanced perspective. The organization is driven by mission rather than profit, and our main objective in reporting is embodied in our motto "To injure no man but to bless all mankind."

How do you compare to other news organizations covering international news?

Unlike most US dailies, the Monitor does not rely primarily on wire services, like AP and Reuters, for its international coverage. We have staff writers based in eight countries and eight major cities in the United States - as well as an extensive network of non-staff correspondents around the world. We also have a substantial Washington, D.C., news bureau and a group or reporters and writers based in Boston, Mass., which is where we are headquartered.

Over the decades, the Monitor has been awarded seven Pulitzer prizes for journalistic excellence. Its reporters and editors have covered wars, peace treaties, natural disasters, scientific discoveries, and political campaigns. Monitor journalism can be thought of as seeking the human dimension behind global events. We look unflinchingly at problems in the world - from global climate change to human rights abuses - but we also are careful to note progress and achievement in the arts and sciences and to highlight individuals and groups that are trying to solve problems and make a difference in the world.

Is the Monitor a religious news organization?

For 100 years, the Monitor has been published by the Christian Science church, formally known First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Mass. But Monitor content is professional, balanced, and impartial news and features, with the exception of one religious article that has appeared each day since 1908, at the request of the paper's founder.

The Monitor's staff writers and editors are professional journalists who adhere to the highest standards of journalistic ethics. Both Christian Scientists and non-church members work here. The Monitor is read and trusted by people of all faiths and belief systems.

Why did Eddy start a newspaper?

One answer might be found in a story the Monitor's Washington bureau chief, David Cook, told in a talk he gave several years ago:

Consider this case. It is 1907. An elderly New England woman finds herself being targeted by Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. She is 86 years old and holds some unconventional religious beliefs that she expounds in a book. The book becomes a bestseller, making her wealthy and a well-known public figure.

The New York World decides she is incapable of managing her own affairs and persuades some of her friends and her two sons to sue for control of her estate. Although Boston and New Hampshire newspapers and major wire services interview this person and find her competent, the New York World is unrelenting. The lady in question finally is taken to court where the case against her is dropped.

And the next year this woman, Mary Baker Eddy, founds The Christian Science Monitor.

Given her experience with the press, it is not all that surprising that she sets as the Monitor's goal 'to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.' In one of life's little ironies, Joseph Pulitzer went on to endow the Pulitzer prizes for journalistic excellence.

Mrs. Eddy had been thinking about a newspaper for a long time before 1907. Way back in 1883 she wrote: "Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon the body. A periodical of our own will counteract to some extent this public nuisance; for through our paper we shall be able to reach many homes with healing, purifying thought."

There were many more letters and messages to church members from Eddy on the subject between then and the New York World case. Then an interesting coincidence occurred in March 1908, eight months before the paper's launch: Eddy received a long letter from a local journalist and Christian Scientist, John L. Wright. In it, he told her he felt there was a growing need for a daily newspaper that 'will place principle before dividends, and that will be fair, frank and honest with the people on all subjects and under whatever pressure' - a truly independent voice not controlled by 'commercial and political monopolists.'

Wright certainly got the idea. (A few months later he left the Boston Globe to become the Monitor's first city editor.) His was among 1,000 job applications the Monitor's first editor, Archibald McLellan, received prior to launch."

Is publishing the Monitor about spreading good values?

The Christian Science church doesn't publish news to propagate denominational doctrine; it provides news purely as a public service. Here's why: If the basic theology of that church says that what reaches and affects thought shapes experience, it follows that a newspaper would have significant impact on the lives of those who read it.

News with the motive "to injure no man, but to bless all mankind" cannot but help improve society and individual lives. The idea is that the unblemished truth is freeing (as a fundamental human right); with it, citizens can make informed decisions and take intelligent action, for themselves and for society.

Then if the Monitor's news is basically secular and for everybody, why is "Christian Science" in its name?

It's about honesty and purpose. We do not hide the fact that the Christian Science church has stood behind this publication for more than 100 years. While some might argue that not having those words would give it wider appeal, to remove them would mislead people about the organization that supports the Monitor. Eddy knew this from the outset. She insisted, against strong opposition from some of her advisers and church officers, that the words "Christian Science" should be in the paper's name.

According to one of her biographers, Robert Peel, to Eddy, "the designated title was an identification of the paper with the promise that no human situation was beyond healing or rectification if approached with sufficient understanding of man's God-given potentialities. Nor did the "good news" of Christianity involve the prettification of bad news, but rather, its confident confrontation" (witness Monitor correspondent David Rohde's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting 1995 on alleged massacres by Bosnian Serb forces).

Do church leaders determine or influence the Monitor's editorial content?

The Board of Directors of the First Church of Christ, Scientist has oversight over Monitor editorials and editorial cartoons, but rarely changes copy. The board selects the Monitor's editor, whose staff chooses stories they feel are most appropriate on a daily basis.

Why doesn't the Monitor endorse political candidates?

The Monitor's editors believe readers should decide for themselves who is best qualified for public office. Our extensive political coverage from Capitol Hill and in races around the country strives to provide all the information necessary for voters to make political decisions most appropriate for them, their communities, and the nation, whether choosing a local candidate or the next president of the United States.

How would I find out more about the Monitor's founder and Christian Science?

Visit www.christianscience.com for information about Christian Science and our publisher, The First Church of Christ, Scientist. To learn more about our publisher you may also visit www.churchofchristscientist.org.

For more about Mary Baker Eddy, the pioneering woman who founded the Monitor, see The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity at www.marybakereddylibrary.org.

At www.spirituality.com you can learn more about Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the premier work by Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy. You'll find articles, discussions, and events showing how people are using spiritual ideas in their daily lives.

For more information about The Christian Science Monitor, please e-mail us.

Some of the material for this FAQ was drawn from "Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority", by Robert Peel (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York: 1977), and "Commitment to Freedom: The Story of The Christian Science Monitor", by Erwin D. Canham (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston: 1958).