Jesus tells Christians to be "simple" like doves. But be smart like serpents. (Cf. Matt. 10:16). Catholics are good at being "doves" but often failures at being "snakes." In this exercise, we help our Catholics to be sensitive to the influence of the media. "Establishment newspapers" promise to be unbiased in presenting the news. However, there are many opportunities, consciously or unconsciously, to advocate a position. Ideally "establishment journalism" presents facts and fairly gives voice to various interpretations of these facts. Then the reader decides for him or herself.

Among the millions of news items, the editor must make a choice of which news items to include and which to exclude. There is a choice of the eye-catching heading that gives a first impression to the reader. There is the arrangement of the material.

"Advocacy press" has a philosophy from which it arrives at a position on an issue. It then attempts to gain adherents to their position. The "advocacy press" often does extensive research, often in a scholarly manner and using credible documents, to arrive at its position. It then publicizes its conclusions. Often it must depend on resources, principles and intuitions which do not meet the requirements of a truly "establishment press" report. Repeatedly, the "advocacy press" provides the leads and initial research. It then gains the interest of the "establishment press."

THINKING ABOUT JUSTICE

Time permitting, pass out a little questionnaire and let each person quietly answer each of the questions. If the group is small, have the members compare their answers and agree on a consensus report.

REFERENCES

"SCMP’s TAKE ON THE NEWS
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post has long been the city’s establishment newspaper. For that reason its coverage of China affairs is considered an important indicate of how well the territory’s media withstanding pressures from Beijing in the four years since the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule. That makes a July 5 [2001] front page article on the deaths in a Chinese labour camp of 14 Falun Gong members particularly jarring. Beneath a headline ‘Sect suicides "ordered from overseas"’ ran an article saying a Chinese official had confirmed the deaths were a group suicide. Only late in the story was it mentioned that the incident was disputed: the Falun Gong says the deaths were from torture. …Still, a look at the original Associated Press report on which the Post’s story was principally based, shows the words ‘conflicting accounts’ in the headline. One other striking difference: AP mentions the Falun Gong torture claim in its first sentence." "Intelligence," Far Eastern Economic Review, (July 19, 2001) p. 12.