Comment on media coverage - and congratulations to "Bones"

It is not a very enjoyable task to trawl through the media and comment on the mean-minded coverage that too often manifests itself. Thanks therefore to Gregory in the combox for doing this little job for me in his comment on last night's summary post:
Yes, an absolute success so far.

Big plus especially to Sky News (credit where due and all that...maybe that Papal Knight to Rupert was well considered after all!) for its rolling, generally balanced, coverage - especially from Colin Brazier and Anna Botting.

Big minus to the Guardian's front page today which, even for it, has plumbed new depths of bile. I must say, as wizened as I am to the Grauniad's nasty antics it even surprised me. Quite the most unctuous headline (no-one does unctuousness - a criticism often aimed at the Church - better than scorned atheists). Still, I suppose it's a measure of how successful Scotland was yesterday that all that was left for the Groaniad was to spill poison wherever, however it could. This harks bark to the "PR or not to PR?" debate on here the other week and, I would aver, the Grauniad's treatment of His Holiness today is an example of why I believe the Church has no desperate need to practice PR per se. For it's all too often the case that there's nothing the Church can say that will ever placate those hell bent on twisting a message grotesquely. PR, no. Truth and consistency, yes.

Biggest disappointment so far, though, has been Julie Etchingham's "Tonight" package on ITV yesterday evening. I had high hopes that we'd see some Brazieresque balance from Ms Etchingham but it was quite the most tendentious cut-n-paste job I've witnessed so far (barring Tatchell o'course). The whole thing smacked of "all my media friends know I'm Catholic so I have to show that I'm not soft on the abuse issues". Except she went too far the other way. I note that she was quick enough to include footage of HH with the Duke of Edinburgh yesterday morning but not quick enough to include the Pope's words on Alitalia yesterday. Funny, that. Furthermore, if her defence was that the package was too prepared to tinker with at the last minute then you have to ask how she managed to skew the whole Lawarence Murphy case without including the statements of Fr Tom Brundage who, it seems, is still a central figure to be ignored lest his testimony ruin the facts. Really disappointed in Etchingham.

Fiona O'Reilly of Catholic Voices continues to impress, though.

And as for the Hermeneutical coverage...Catholic blogospherical awards await, I'd say!
In other media news today, the letter put together by Laurence England of the blog That The Bones You Have Crushed May Thrill has been published in the Guardian. Sadly there is a letter underneath from a group of dissenters who wonder if the Papal Visit "reflects ongoing concerns with power and status". People will be reading that against the backdrop of the Holy Father's wonderful gathering with schoolchildren - to which we now hastily turn...

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