The Media and the Vatican: Opposing Goals
The New York Times, April 23, 2005
NEWS ANALYSIS
By DAVID CARR
Now that the rooftop sets with a view of St. Peter's Cathedral have been struck and the rented satellite trucks have been returned, the remaining media contingent in Rome is left with the question of how to cover a new pope.
The first few days of the tenure of Pope Benedict XVI have revealed two very different institutional imperatives. The Vatican, with a favorite son as the new pontiff, must give heft to the doctrinal assumption that he is, by virtue of his selection, infallible. And the media, while for the most part respectful of both the institution and the man, must do its job as well: discerning and describing every public figure's feet of clay.
As reporters crawl all over the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's hometown in Germany and tease apart his extensive public record as a Catholic leader, most seem less concerned about his singular status than about his personal and theological history.
"We don't feel compelled to treat him gently because he is the pope," said Dean Baquet, managing editor of The Los Angeles Times. "Obviously there is a certain amount of respect, but we have the same obligation as we do with any public figure - to examine what he believes and the effect it will have on the world."
And so as the days have passed since Tuesday's white smoke signaled Cardinal Ratzinger's ascension, the new pope's public image has become more textured and perhaps less exalted. Readers and viewers of the American media have learned that Pope Benedict was briefly and unenthusiastically a member of the Hitler Youth, that he was conscripted to serve in the German Army in World War II and that his tenure as the chief enforcer of doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church has occasionally been bruising. The uneasy truce between an ancient organization and a hungry media hoard will be tested anew in the coming weeks.
"The Vatican and the previous pope were so skilled at using the media, they should not be surprised when the media looks back at them," said Diane Winston, a professor of media and religion at the University of Southern California.
Reporters in Rome have lived through an extremely compressed equivalent of an American presidential illness, funeral and vote to replace the president in less than a month. After any election of significance, here or abroad, the media reflexively examine the victor from every angle. When John Paul II was elected in 1978, he came virtually out of nowhere. There was no free press in Poland then, much less an Internet or round-the-clock cable news coverage, so media outlets had to rely on official Vatican biographies paired with seemingly random interviews of Polish citizens. It is a very different media world that greets Benedict.
"Never has the world media been more competitive," said Jack Shafer, media critic for the online magazine Slate. "Reporters are going to turn over every stone, track every lead and examine every navel."
In the last three decades a huge media apparatus has developed, and the speed of the coverage has increased.
"Because this pope is such a known quantity, the media is jumping much more quickly into the evaluative and critical," said John L. Allen Jr., the new pope's biographer and a reporter for National Catholic Reporter.
David Gibson, the author of "The Coming Catholic Church," said, "If the media is perceived as being too critical, it could raise echoes of anti-Catholicism, which is something that many people who are still alive remember as all too real."
William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said as much. "I am concerned that some non-Catholics have crossed the line from being voyeurs to meddlers," he said, pointing to secular coverage that has prescribed an agenda for the new pope. He added: "I am entirely tolerant of the high scrutiny the new pope has been given. He is a world leader and the leader of a nation-state."
Some components of the ritual pat-down that American political figures receive have already appeared, but most have approached the task gingerly.
"I don't know if deference is the right word, but it is a different story," said Mark Lukasiewicz, an executive producer at NBC News. "It has a political element, but there was no campaign. Still, we do have a well-documented, very deep record of his thoughts and actions on a number of controversial issues, including the sex-abuse scandals."
And Cardinal Ratzinger himself has raised questions about the role of the American media in the affairs of the church.
"I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower," he said in 2002, The Associated Press reported.
Mr. Shafer of Slate said that the Vatican was merely engaging in the modern media tactics of any large organization. "The Vatican is partaking of the star-making machinery as best it can to transform this man who was previously described as the pope's chief enforcer and transform him into the vicar of Christ," he said.
Others say that there are or should be limits to the coverage of the pontiff.
"I think there has been an acknowledgement of the difference between the pope and a candidate for political office," said R. Scott Appleby, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. "I am not saying that he has been given a pass, but some appropriate deference has been shown."
"Today there is a cult of celebrity around every public figure," he said. "I appreciate the largely symbolic reserve that the Vatican has shown. Some details do not belong in the public domain." He pointed out that the Vatican never confirmed that the previous pope had Parkinson's disease.
But when reporters were notified by e-mail that the pope had died and when bells were added to smoke as a signal that his successor had been chosen, the pattern of engagement had clearly been joined.
"As you saw during the conclave, when no information is available, the media will continue to say what they want to whether there is information available or not," said Alberto Melloni, a Vatican historian. "The media is not a partner is this process, but they are part of it."
NEWS ANALYSIS
By DAVID CARR
Now that the rooftop sets with a view of St. Peter's Cathedral have been struck and the rented satellite trucks have been returned, the remaining media contingent in Rome is left with the question of how to cover a new pope.
The first few days of the tenure of Pope Benedict XVI have revealed two very different institutional imperatives. The Vatican, with a favorite son as the new pontiff, must give heft to the doctrinal assumption that he is, by virtue of his selection, infallible. And the media, while for the most part respectful of both the institution and the man, must do its job as well: discerning and describing every public figure's feet of clay.
As reporters crawl all over the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's hometown in Germany and tease apart his extensive public record as a Catholic leader, most seem less concerned about his singular status than about his personal and theological history.
"We don't feel compelled to treat him gently because he is the pope," said Dean Baquet, managing editor of The Los Angeles Times. "Obviously there is a certain amount of respect, but we have the same obligation as we do with any public figure - to examine what he believes and the effect it will have on the world."
And so as the days have passed since Tuesday's white smoke signaled Cardinal Ratzinger's ascension, the new pope's public image has become more textured and perhaps less exalted. Readers and viewers of the American media have learned that Pope Benedict was briefly and unenthusiastically a member of the Hitler Youth, that he was conscripted to serve in the German Army in World War II and that his tenure as the chief enforcer of doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church has occasionally been bruising. The uneasy truce between an ancient organization and a hungry media hoard will be tested anew in the coming weeks.
"The Vatican and the previous pope were so skilled at using the media, they should not be surprised when the media looks back at them," said Diane Winston, a professor of media and religion at the University of Southern California.
Reporters in Rome have lived through an extremely compressed equivalent of an American presidential illness, funeral and vote to replace the president in less than a month. After any election of significance, here or abroad, the media reflexively examine the victor from every angle. When John Paul II was elected in 1978, he came virtually out of nowhere. There was no free press in Poland then, much less an Internet or round-the-clock cable news coverage, so media outlets had to rely on official Vatican biographies paired with seemingly random interviews of Polish citizens. It is a very different media world that greets Benedict.
"Never has the world media been more competitive," said Jack Shafer, media critic for the online magazine Slate. "Reporters are going to turn over every stone, track every lead and examine every navel."
In the last three decades a huge media apparatus has developed, and the speed of the coverage has increased.
"Because this pope is such a known quantity, the media is jumping much more quickly into the evaluative and critical," said John L. Allen Jr., the new pope's biographer and a reporter for National Catholic Reporter.
David Gibson, the author of "The Coming Catholic Church," said, "If the media is perceived as being too critical, it could raise echoes of anti-Catholicism, which is something that many people who are still alive remember as all too real."
William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said as much. "I am concerned that some non-Catholics have crossed the line from being voyeurs to meddlers," he said, pointing to secular coverage that has prescribed an agenda for the new pope. He added: "I am entirely tolerant of the high scrutiny the new pope has been given. He is a world leader and the leader of a nation-state."
Some components of the ritual pat-down that American political figures receive have already appeared, but most have approached the task gingerly.
"I don't know if deference is the right word, but it is a different story," said Mark Lukasiewicz, an executive producer at NBC News. "It has a political element, but there was no campaign. Still, we do have a well-documented, very deep record of his thoughts and actions on a number of controversial issues, including the sex-abuse scandals."
And Cardinal Ratzinger himself has raised questions about the role of the American media in the affairs of the church.
"I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower," he said in 2002, The Associated Press reported.
Mr. Shafer of Slate said that the Vatican was merely engaging in the modern media tactics of any large organization. "The Vatican is partaking of the star-making machinery as best it can to transform this man who was previously described as the pope's chief enforcer and transform him into the vicar of Christ," he said.
Others say that there are or should be limits to the coverage of the pontiff.
"I think there has been an acknowledgement of the difference between the pope and a candidate for political office," said R. Scott Appleby, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. "I am not saying that he has been given a pass, but some appropriate deference has been shown."
"Today there is a cult of celebrity around every public figure," he said. "I appreciate the largely symbolic reserve that the Vatican has shown. Some details do not belong in the public domain." He pointed out that the Vatican never confirmed that the previous pope had Parkinson's disease.
But when reporters were notified by e-mail that the pope had died and when bells were added to smoke as a signal that his successor had been chosen, the pattern of engagement had clearly been joined.
"As you saw during the conclave, when no information is available, the media will continue to say what they want to whether there is information available or not," said Alberto Melloni, a Vatican historian. "The media is not a partner is this process, but they are part of it."
posted by coldipeccio at 10:40 AM
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