In the wake of the U.S. State Department’s report on worldwide religious freedom, which once again condemned Saudi Arabia as a severe violator of religious liberty that only allowed citizens to follow the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam, comes the story of a Saudi teacher convicted for classroom irreverence, and given a sentence of three and a half years in prison and 750 lashes. Just what his offense was though, is hard to tell from the headlines of reports on the stories, which alternately described the charges against the teacher as “mocking religion” (Arab News, Saudi Arabia) — the official charge as brought against the teacher in court — “mocking Islam” (Malaysia Star); “praising Jews” (NewsMax.com); and “discussing the Bible” (The Washington Times). All desciptions of the nature of the irreverence that say more about the reporting publication and its readers than the story itself — which isn’t exactly news, but is a quick n’ dirty picture of how the branding/audience targeting of “niche” publications is starting to change not just the layout of the news, but the news itself.