Liberal media outlets have attacked Pope Francis for being “tone-deaf” when they disagreed with his views, but now that he’s hawking climate alarmism they’ve begun fawning.
The Washington Post front-page praised the Pope on June 15, and suggested he could impact environmental policy through his “highly anticipated” letter to Catholic bishops about global warming, called an encyclical. The story, co-written by Michelle Boorstein, Anthony Faiola and Chris Mooney, spoke positively of his “enormous popularity.”
The Post reported that a leaked draft of the encyclical said humans were responsible for “the bulk of global warming” and said the developing world should balance its “ecological debt” to poorer countries.
“The encyclical release had been planned for Thursday and was highly anticipated, given Francis’s enormous popularity and what many see as his potential to significantly affect policy in such areas as energy use and economic globalization,” Boorstein and the others wrote. They also said the “draft reveals Francis as part policy wonk, part lyricist,” but the document was “likely to anger some of his conservative critics.”
The Post’s praise for Pope Francis contrasts with the liberal media’s past attacks on his more conservative positions. The New York Times called Pope Francis “strikingly tone-deaf toward the sensitivities and needs of women” on March 6. On Jan. 16, 2015, MSNBC.com Digital Writer Michele Richinick called him an “OLD SCHOOL POPE” in blaring teaser headline about the Pope’s views on gay marriage.
ABC and NBC both highlighted left-wing Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner’s criticism of Pope Francis as “medieval” on social issues like abortion, contraception and homosexuality in March 2013. NBC’s Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson said that “the Pope opposed many social programs that Kirchner endorsed, including gay marriage and free contraception.” ABC correspondent and Good Morning America weekend host Ron Claiborne described Francis as “conservative” on social issues, but failed to note that Kirchner was liberal.
