To absolutely no one’s surprise, the Pope is a fan of advocacy journalism;
“I therefore urge you to work according to truth and justice, so that communication is truly an instrument for building, not for destroying; for meeting, not for clashing; for dialoguing, not for monologizing; for orienting, not for disorienting; for understanding, not for misunderstanding; for walking in peace, not for sowing hatred; for giving a voice to those who have no voice, not for being a megaphone to those who shout louder,” the Pope told some 400 journalists of the Foreign Press Association of Italy on Saturday.
Go here to read the rest. PopeWatch is unsurprised that the Pope does not state that the first duty of a journalist is to accurately convey the facts of any news story. Instead the Pope wishes journalists to be advocates:
We need journalists who are on the side of the victims…, of those who are persecuted, on the side of those who are excluded, discarded, discriminated against.” Journalists, he said, are needed to recall the many forgotten situations of suffering and wars, such as those of the Rohingya and the Yazidi.
The Pope does state that journalists need to know the facts of the stories they cover, but factual reporting is difficult if the journalist is to be first an advocate.
Giving opinions has been a part of journalism since Sumer, but without an accurate substrata of facts, such opinions are merely propaganda.
Is he maybe confusing journalists with catechism teachers?
Bergoglio knows exactly what he is doing. He is a master at doublespeak, like Peron. Politics interest him far more than his own faith. He ruthlessly punishes his adversaries who are of lower rank, ignores the complaints of the faithful and craves adulation from the public at large. More people can show up for a South Fayette football game than for his Wednesday Angelus but if Le Monde or Der Spiegel or the Washington Compost like what he says he is satisfied.
Peron nearly destroyed Argentina, and he was not even a Communist hell bent on destroying like Castro was. As smart as Bergoglio thinks he is, the truth is that he is a dupe, a disciple of a failure of a politician and a devotee of a theology – liberation theology – that is an invention of the Soviet KGB that was meant to destroy the Church in Latin America and make it fertile ground for Marxism.
Michael Matt has a great video on YouTube. It is vital to keep the faith, to stay in the Church and work to change it, and not to cut and run – to the Orthodox like Rod Dreher did – or anywhere else. This, too shall pass.
Supposedly, in 1937, Mussolini said, “We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty.”
If you allow me, this is my (crazy) translation of PF’s commentary, “We have buried the putrid corpse of [fill-in-the-blank].
Unbelievable.
We need journalists who are on the side of the victims…, of those who are persecuted, on the side of those who are excluded, discarded, discriminated against.”
Except, of course, the victims of the rancid cabal housed in the Vatican and their counterparts in other places (the Chicago chancery).
He is a master at doublespeak, like Peron.
I see you read Jacobo Timerman’s brief primer on decoding Peron. He would have done well to turn it into a monograph. Cannot recall who said, “Pity Argentina. So far from God, so close to the Argentine people”.
I could care less what that Argentinian Marxist Peronist Caudillo thinks. The less I pay him any attention, the less angry I become.