Coverage of the Pope
john posted in politics & culture on May 10th, 2005
There was more press coverage of the recent change in papacy, than of the latest Democratic Convention. The LA Times devoted many pages each day to minute coverage of the last Pope’s condition, the countdown to choosing a new Pope, and bios of the new fella. I learned that the Beatle’s song Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is about the arcane ritual that tests the Pope’s death using a little hammer. Huh, I always wondered about that song. NPR covered the story daily too.
Am I missing something here? The details of the innards of the Catholic church are interesting, and its soothing to find that ancient traditions still operate, but I don’t see how most of it was news. In the developed world the new Pope’s policy won’t make much difference. The papers wrote stories on how the Catholic Church is competing with Protestant missionaries in third world countries, and may have to choose, can you imagine? an African Pope. But that just leaves the Third Worlders between the proverbial rock and hard place as far as I can see.
What practical difference does the Pope make? They say that the last Pope offered encouragement to Solidarity in Poland during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thats nice; he also apologized to the Jews for the Church’s support for Nazism. Hey, its always good to see a religious organization separating itself from genocide. I am not ignoring the fact of a billion Catholics worldwide, who surely do care what the Pope says, though they don’t follow his guidance so much. But the coverage wasn’t about church history, or a study in the sociology of Catholicism. It was more like reporting the NFL draft: rapt, uncritical, full of a pop-culture reverence. Surely, nuclear proliferation, the fossil-fuel crisis, and Putin’s takeover in Moscow are three ongoing subjects with greater complexity, and far greater relevance?
Oh. Complexity. I’m sorry, I must be shouting into the wind again, expecting news organizations to deal with unstaged events, without juicy quotes and easy pictures, events that could plunge us into a depression or get us killed at the extreme.
My guess is that the affair was a giant travelogue, similar to the Royal Wedding, but with better weather and more drama. Lots of people cared a little, some deeply. Rome is a prized destination, with lots of picture opportunities. The sonorous march of events made it easy to keep up, there were lots of people to quote, and no need to work late. Huge, photogenic crowds gathered in a beautiful square, and except for the pickpockets, nobody got hurt. The Cardinals slow-marched like circus elephants with their handlers bearing censers under the Sistine ceiling. The dying Pope was old and sick, and ready to go, but slowly. The creaky machinery of the Vatican was dusted off, and worked reliably. The road crew had time to setup for all the shots. And the food was great.
So maybe asking for high seriousness is beside the point. Maybe the readers just needed a good dose of old-fashioned pomp and circumstance. Nobody does it better.
The new Pope: overheard in New York.
Leave a Response