The verdict is in from the Pontiff: Fake news (more specifically, knowingly engaging in creating or spreading it) is a sin.
While “fake news” is literally as old as the news itself, liberals tried to pretend that it was a new phenomenon exclusively coming from conservatives to bolster Donald Trump’s candidacy. I guess they needed an excuse for why people weren’t listening to them for once? Regardless, Trump supporters quickly co-opted the phrase, peaking with Trump telling CNN’s Jim Acosta to his face “you are fake news.”
While we can acknowledge that there are plenty of websites in the “fake news” category on both sides, conservative sources are isolated to the internet equivalent of tabloid magazines. The left, meanwhile, brings fake news to the national stage, hence the incredible number of retractions ABC and CNN have had to make this year alone.
Pope Francis, a man who has been misrepresented and misquoted by the media countless times (usually to make him appear more liberal than he actually is), has come out to criticize journalists who sensationalize the news and create fake stories, calling it a “very serious sin” that hurts all of those involved.
According to the Daily Mail,
Francis, who plans to dedicate his upcoming annual communications message to ‘fake news,’ said Saturday that journalists perform a mission that is among the most ‘fundamental’ to democratic societies.
But he reminded them to provide precise, complete and correct information and not to provide one-sided reports.The pope said: ‘You shouldn’t fall into the “sins of communication”: disinformation, or giving just one side, calumny that is sensationalised, or defamation, looking for things that are old news and have been dealt with and bringing them to light today.’
He called those actions a ‘grave sin that hurts the heart of the journalist and hurts others.’
Or summarized in simpler terms: Thou shalt not lie.
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