Sharp news consumers

You’re on to them, those media elites who twist and spin news stories to fit a political and social view, and you’re asking the good questions they are not.

Sarah writes in after watching the morning news on a couple of networks, and noticed how the story of the Pope’s remarks about Catholic politicians has generated lively speculation.

I was watching GMA (Good Morning America) this morning, and Diane Sawyer hit upon this same story, though with a slightly different spin. The GMA take appears to be that Pope Benedict is trying to “influence American politics.” They went through great pains to enumerate all the Republican politicians who may be affected by this, including Guiliani and Romney.

…as I was listening to this, I found myself talking back to the TV, asking questions. For instance, why the notable lack of any mention of Democratic politicians who purport to be Catholic, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Or Senator John Kerry?

Good questions, Sarah. You’re ahead of the folks with cameras and microphones when you’re following critical thinking and logic and just expecting intellectual honesty.

Be informed. On the pope’s remarks on Church teaching, including the clarification by Ed Peters in the post below.

In the past couple of days, I found nearly all the major news shows, especially in the political analysis segments, critiquing this story and blowing it all out of proportion. And yes, focusing mainly on Catholic presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani, who supports abortion, while deftly avoiding that application of principles to Catholic politicians in the other party.

And speaking of Guiliani’s stance, look at this one snip from this New York Times piece:

Both his leading opponents, Senator John McCain of Arizona and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, oppose abortion rights. Mr. McCain regularly refers to his lifelong opposition to abortion rights. Mr. Romney also regularly talks about his opposition, though he is perhaps more politically constrained because he supported abortion rights through much of his political career in Massachusetts.

That blurb alone uses the term “abortion rights” three times in a short space, and some form of the word “opposition” four times. They’re joined as basically “opposed to abortion rights” to power pack the message and cue the reader to think negatively of these candidates.

But you’re on to that.