‘Protectors of news’

Pope Francis offers some welcome guidance, hope and encouragement to beleaguered journalists

It’s not easy being a journalist these days, especially one working in the much-derided “mainstream media.” We’re accused of all manner of sins, including spreading so-called “fake news” — which all too often turns out to mean information that someone simply finds inconvenient.

Now along comes no less a figure than Pope Francis to offer guidance, hope and even a little encouragement. In a message marking the Vatican’s “World Day of Social Communications” in May, Francis issues a useful caution against the damage wrought by real fake news, which he calls “information based on non-existent or distorted data meant to deceive and manipulate the reader.”

Being the Pope, he takes it all back to the Garden of Eden and compares today’s fake news to the manipulation of Eve by the “crafty serpent” in the Book of Genesis. He decries the “snake tactics” of “those who disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place.” Not the comparison we would have reached for, but it does the trick.

The Pope calls journalists “the protectors of news” and says that in today’s world “theirs is, in every sense, not just a job; it is a mission.” We certainly like to think so.

He continues: “I would like, then, to invite everyone to promote a journalism of peace. By that, I do not mean the saccharine kind of journalism that refuses to acknowledge the existence of serious problems or smacks of sentimentalism. On the contrary, I mean a journalism that is truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans and sensational headlines.

“A journalism created by people for people, one that is at the service of all, especially those — and they are the majority in our world — who have no voice. A journalism less concentrated on breaking news than on exploring the underlying causes of conflicts, in order to promote deeper understanding and contribute to their resolution by setting in place virtuous processes. A journalism committed to pointing out alternatives to the escalation of shouting matches and verbal violence.”

To which we can only say: Amen to all that.