February 7, 2015

Media blows pope story

I watched several broadcast and local news shows last night, and not one provided context for the story about the pope's approval of fathers who hit their children. They simply reported some version of "the pope says it might be okay to hit your child". That's not how it went down.

Let us once again look at how the pope came to utter these dreadful words. Here is the exact quote that I provided in yesterday's post:
Pope Francis had praised a father who admitted smacking his child "but never in the face so as to not humiliate them."

Francis described the man's comment as "beautiful," adding: "He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on."
Not one media source mentioned the father's comment which led to the pope's sickening assessment. And none of them quoted the pope's words. He praised the father and called his actions beautiful and dignified.
 
Once again we see that the media whitewashes the words of those they see as primary players. It's a much more disgusting exchange when we understand that the pope praised this father for hitting the child everywhere but the face! And the pope actually said this indicates the father "knows the sense of dignity"! Beautiful? Just? There was absolutely no mention of the exact words that the pope used. Just a simple "the pope thinks it might be okay to hit kids".

That's not news, that's protecting the pope and preventing the actual story from being disseminated. These sources surely had access to the conversation that led the pope down this shady path. Hell, it was right there in the AP dispatch. But they chose not to share this context with viewers. It might make the pope look bad.

This is the state of American news. They never tell people what actually happened. They just tell us what they think we can handle -- while protecting those in power. It's appalling.

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