Media obligated to provide community with truth, justice in reporting

When the Diocese of Phoenix held a news conference last month to announce Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s decision to revoke the Catholic identity of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, the brave announcement rippled through the community and much of the country. Controversy-hungry reporters seeking snappy sound bites and big, bold headlines first reported on the event.

Because of the realities faced by newspapers and nightly broadcasts — shrinking news holes, short attention spans and a race to be first in breaking news — nuance and context are often sacrificed. Without these two elements, truth and justice cannot be served.

Anticipating this scenario, the Diocese of Phoenix posted the entire 25-minute long news conference and question-and-answer session to the web for all to see. In the first three weeks of it being available, the video graced 91,000-plus computer screens in 113 different countries. Those who took the time to watch the video were likely seeking to form an opinion with the nuance and context of the announcement intact — uncompressed, unfiltered and unbiased.

In addition to the video, found at www.arizonacatholic.org, the diocese provided a list of documents, statements and links to other resources outside of the mainstream that it hopes will provide for a well-formed opinion and a thoughtful, more thorough approach by reporters covering the situation.

In his 2009 message for the 42nd World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI called on the media to make known “the truth about humanity” and defend it “against those who tend to deny or destroy it.”

“[P]erhaps this is a valuable opportunity to reshape it, to make more visible, as my venerable predecessor Pope John Paul II said, the essential and indispensable elements of the truth about the human person,” the pope said.

The truth in this situation is that the heartbeat of a defenseless, voiceless unborn baby was silenced at St. Joseph’s Hospital in 2009. Opinion makers in the media may choose to follow an agenda based on an ever-shifting set of morals, but to obfuscate or distract from the truth is an injustice to those whom they are privileged to serve and give voice.

In our opinion, news reports focused solely on controversy and division serve only to accelerate the community’s exodus away from mainstream news outlets in droves.

Category: Editorial, Views