Here in the nutty, right-wing, Bible Belt state of Oklahoma, we go to the polls Tuesday to cast our ballots and, hopefully, stop the incessant radio and TV commercials from those who are sneaking in our borders and accosting our way of life. I am talking, of course, about the politicians. Seriously, folks, I am willing to give my vote to the first candidate to shut up for a full five minutes.

I jest. I jest. Most of the commercials I hear seem to relate to our Republican gubernatorial candidate who is going to stand up to Washington (by moving from Congress to the governor’s office in Oklahoma City) and the massive education spending measure that would pay for itself by cutting $2 billion in tax breaks for special interests (you don’t think there’s any teacher union involvement in that wholly believable campaign, do you?).

But I digress. This is GetReligion, so let me get to today’s topic: Sharia religious law. And today’s other topic: Bad journalism. And to play a starring role in both topics: the Los Angeles Times.

Besides voting on State Question 744 — the education spending measure referenced earlier — Oklahomans will decide 10 other state questions Tuesday. One of them, State Question 755, would ban Sharia law in the state. Here’s how The Oklahoman, one of the nation’s more conservative newspapers, described the measure in an editorial urging voters to reject it:The rest of the story follows much the same pattern of making clear exactly how crazy the ballot measure is, according to the Times.

Supporters “can point to only a handful of cases that merely allude to the centuries-old, complex tangle of Muslim religious law.” Backers “have cited only three cases that they contend show the threat of Sharia law.” Blanket statements are attributed to “some conservative activists.”

Another weakness of the story is that it fails to highlight the bigger picture of Oklahoma politics. The Sharia ballot question is not placed into the context of a larger conservative movement in the state. Typically, we GetReligionistas complain when reporters focus too much on the politics and not enough on the religion. In this case, the politics seem to be crucial to understanding what’s occurring. For example, consider this story from The Oklahoman:Keep reading the CNN report, and you get nuance, you get Newt Gingrich proposing a federal law along the same lines, you get actual ballot wording, you get details on the claims made in media ads, and you even get this kind of real reporting with input from a real person: