When analyzing news content on the nation’s Hispanic news media, it is helpful to remember that what is not covered is as important as what is covered, if not more so. This week’s papal visit to the United States provides us with another such instance.
By now you probably know that the White House will be hosting a welcome ceremony for Pope Francis. Furthermore you know that this event is not without controversy, as it is now known that the Vatican is pushing back against some of the guests invited by the Obama White House. Per The Wall Street Journal:
On the eve of Pope Francis’s arrival in the U.S., the Vatican has taken offense at the Obama administration’s decision to invite to the Pope’s welcome ceremony transgender activists, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop and an activist nun who leads a group criticized by the Vatican for its silence on abortion and euthanasia.
It is not enough that the Pope is an ally of this White House on certain aspects of economic and foreign policy, as well as climate change. Pope Francis will be made to walk the plank for the sin of still being a Catholic on matters of life, family and marriage - and regardless of his own concerns that the ensuing photo op will be perceived by some to be a doctrinal softening.
So far, the story has been briefly mentioned on Univision, but as far as the nation’s largest Hispanic print media outlet is concerned, none of this ever happened. For what good reason would ImpreMedia, publisher of such top major Spanish-language dailies as La Opinión in Los Angeles and El Diario in New York, withhold this story from its audience, given that close to 40% of U.S. Catholics overall are Hispanic?
Who decided that this story is not relevant to Hispanics? Perhaps it has been decided that widespread suppression of this attempted humiliation of the Pope “…is necessary to push the agenda for a more fair society, for a more inclusive society and for the Hispanic community to be better.”
Spiking the story allows outlets such as ImpreMedia to continue emphasizing the common ground that exists between Francis and the American Left, while hammering through what social doctrine differences remain, without having to deal with the narrative of a White House that is clearly hostile to those who publicly proclaim and uphold core moral values of the faith. Personal political agendas trump the duty to inform, and to present all the facts.
It is a mindset that is best encapsulated in this week’s installment of Univision/Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos’ weekly opinion column, “The Sinner Pope.”
In spite of casting himself as a Pope open to change, Bergoglio refuses to allow women to practice the priesthood, refuses to lift the celibacy prohibition from priests, forcefully rejects gay marriage, abortion and doesn’t even approve of the use of contraceptives.
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