Pope Benedict XVI and Terri Schiavo
The way a newspaper reports the news is critical. An adjective here and a “turn of a phrase” there can totally slant the news. Consider our local newspaper article, “With Pope Benedict’s ascent, U.S. conservatives score big.” By using the word “conservative” the newspaper puts a false label on the new pope. Catholics are conservative, moderate or liberal? That is dogma, according to the newspaper. However, the label “conservative” is not a dogma of the Catholic Church. Truth does not carry a label.
According to the newspaper article, “Catholic liberals believe it would be both wise and just for the church to loosen up on doctrinal demands.” That is the same error that Judas made about the teachings of Jesus. Some of the “doctrinal demands” of the Catholic Church are the right to life, opposition to birth control and opposition to “gay” marriages. No pope can change those “doctrinal demands.” Truth is immutable. It does not change. Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, will defend the truth. One of the new pope’s key gifts is his ability to articulate the fact that there is such a thing as truth. That does not make him a conservative, moderate or liberal.
Another newspaper article is titled, “New pope made risky choices during World War II.” This Associated Press article came out of Germany. The article says, “The future Pope Benedict XVI, whose choices then – enrolling in the Hitler Youth as required and the Army when drafted as he approached age 18 – allowed him to survive…Because Benedict acknowledged his past and because of the circumstances of his involvement, most people, including Jewish groups in Germany and Israel, have been understanding.” The words, “risky” and “understanding” in the article are a delicate choice of words. Suppose I were to substitute the words “wrong” for “risky” and “forgiving” for “understanding?” Then the article would state that the new pope made the wrong choices during World War II, but Jewish groups forgave him because he acknowledged his past and because of the circumstances of his past. Throw enough mud and some of it will stick. The new pope will be forever linked with the Nazi Party.
One of the easiest forms of slanting the news is by not reporting it. I call this censorship by omission. The newspapers either do not report a story, or they bury the story on a back page. My father subscribed to the Washington Times. Stories that were front-page news in the Washington Times were often missing in the local newspaper. It seems that local newspapers are just copying machines for the Associated Press (AP). If the news is not on the newswire, it doesn’t exist.
The Terri Shiavo story was a huge media event. I sent our local newspaper statements from Catholic sources on the Terri Schiavo story. The news releases were about the right to life, feeding and hydration. The statements were from Cardinal Renato Martino, the Vatican’s President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Keeler and Bishop Michael Sheridan, bishop of the diocese of Colorado Springs. Additionally, there was a press release by the Diocese of LaCrosse by the Most Reverned Jerome Listecki on the death of Terri Schiavo. Our local newspaper knowingly refused to print any of these Catholic press releases. Catholics in my city have to pay for any religious statements. It seems that religious news has a price tag on it.
Terri Schiavo died and a nation cried. The future Pope Benedict XVI put it eloquently, “(A) State which arrogates to itself the prerogative of defining which human beings are or are not the subject of rights, and which consequently grants to some the power to violate others’ fundamental right to life, contradicts the democratic ideal to which it continues to appeal and undermines the very foundation on which it is built.”
The Russian word for truth is “pravda.” The Russian newspaper, Pravda, still exists. Some Russians contend that there was no truth in Pravda under communism. Is the western news media any different? The news media attacked the new pope within a few hours after he was elected. The news media also failed to report adequately the Christian side of the Terri Schiavo story.
What is truth? That is the question that echoes throughout the ages. “In philosophy, it is contended that there was no such thing as Truth ‘with a capital T’; truth is purely ambulatory-we make it as we go. Truth is merely a point of view for each man. (Truth) is his own measure of what is true and what is good. Naturally, such a system produces as many philosophies as there are heads…(However,) truth is not something that we invent; if we do, it is a lie; rather it is something we discover, like love…To want to speak the truth, it must be loved” (Sheen 326).
Catholics rejoice in the election of Pope Benedict XVI. He will be a blessing for the pro-life movement. There is comfort in the fact that there is such a thing as truth, particularly the truth that life is sacred. The news media see enforcing doctrinal orthodoxy in conflict with reaching out and welcoming all of humanity. The news media seem to have a different agenda than the new pope. That would explain the media’s slanting of the news and censorship by omission.
Works Cited
Sheen, Fulton. The Quotable Fulton Sheen. New York: Doubleday, 1989.
