Catholic News or PR Service?
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If you haven’t been reading much on our news page about the bishops’ response to the HHS mandate, there’s a reason: As the person responsible for selecting three stories from Catholic News Service each day, I’ve purposely, whenever possible, not posted those items. The reason being that I’ve come to wonder whether or not CNS is doing its job as a service meant to provide news, not merely rewrite press releases and memos from the USCCB in a news format.
For example, I nearly posted this story today (“Proposal to pay for contraceptive cost ‘radically flawed,’ say bishops”), but after reading it and sharing with colleagues, decided against it. Good news stories don’t necessarily have to get into in-depth analysis, but they should cite a good variety of sources, particularly on important and controversial topics. Instead, the only source commenting on the proposals to pay for contraceptive coverage is the bishops. Granted, the title says as much–that the story is about what the bishops are saying, but reporting only what the bishops say does not a news story make. My tough-as-nails news writing professor would have given me an F if I’d turned that in for not getting enough sources.
What alerted me to the problems CNS seems to be having, specifically in their coverage of the HHS mandate, was this piece, written by a journalist, on the abounding “myths” surrounding the mandate. This journalist (though journalists I know pale at the thought of penning a set of myths and facts as a news item), of course, had the “facts,” albethey misleading. The USCCB posted something remarkably on their own site.
I’m not the first person to point out the change in CNS’s coverage over the past few months, nor is it the first time I’ve done it. I often comment on the news stories I post on this site when I see a problem with the sourcing for a story–such as when they reported that people in the pews were responding well and accepting happily the changes in the Mass last December, but then failed to use one single quote from the people in the pews (unfortunately, all news stories older than 30 days are no longer accessbile on our site so there’s no link). [more]
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9 Comments
Shame, shame indeed. Shame on you for molesting children in Minnesota. We do not forgive, we do not forget, expect us.
So we are to depend on this editor to pick for us HIS choice of only three articles from CNS? I think I will go directly to CNS and make my own choice as to what I want to read.
I think you are doing a great job! Keep up the good work. I’m glad you are asking the right questions, and I admire your integrity. Blessings on your ministry.
Your personal integrity and courage are admirable . Thank you .
Thank you for not just being another mouthpiece for the bishops. They themselves, at least those that speak out, have made themselves into mouthpieces for the Republican Party. Who is advocating for those living in poverty, those working for less than a living wage?
I’ve been wondering why you are not reporting much about the bishop’s statements on this issue. Shame on you for censoring.
I agree with you, Jerry. Talk about censoring….this is an unfortunate example of it. The editor seems very concerned that we would be hearing only what the bishops are saying. I guess I will have to go elsewhere if that is what I am looking for in “Catholic” news.
Bravo, o writer…but I wonder how long you’ll have your job?
When I lived and worked in Uganda during the reign of Idi Amin, all news communications had to be the “voice of Amin”. If not, the news writer would soon be among the “missing”. Is there a similarity here?