On the day honoring the patron of journalists…

…it’s a good time to consider the pitfalls of that profession in the modern world.

Today is the feast of St. Francis de Sales patron of journalists. The Vatican released an interesting call for ‘info ethics’ in the rapidly advancing field of social communications. That’s a novel idea for the secular media, “information ethics.”

Benedict XVI notes the fact that “the media can be used to ‘create’ events”, Archbishop Celli observed before going on to ask: “If the media, rather than recounting events, ‘create’ them what happens to mankind?” In this context, he noted, the Pope suggests that “many people now think there is a need, in this sphere, for ‘info-ethics’, just as we have bioethics in the field of medicine and in scientific research linked to life”.

We’re on the precipice of a new frontier.

Media professionals are invited to defend the ethical underpinnings of their profession and to ensure that the ‘centrality and the inviolable dignity of the human person’ are always vindicated”.

Whether they accept this ‘invitation’ or not, they are being watched. They are finally being publicly held to account.