Pope Francis warns against the temptation of “fake news,” drawing a parallel between ethically compromised journalism and the biblical tale of Adam, Eve, the snake, and the forbidden fruit.
In his annual World Communication Day message, held on the feast day of Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists, the pope refers to Eve being fooled by the snake as “the first fake news.”
“We need to unmask what could be called the ‘snake-tactics’ used by those who disguise themselves in order to strike,” he says.
Pope Francis greets journalists aboard the papal flight to Amman, Jordan, on May 24, 2014. (AP/Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano)
“Fake news” was popularized as a phrase by Donald Trump during his victorious 2016 US presidential election campaign and first year in the White House.
Pope Francis used the story of Adam and Eve, from the Bible’s Book of Genesis, to highlight that “there is no such thing as harmless disinformation; on the contrary, trusting in falsehood can have dire consequences. Even a seemingly slight distortion of the truth can have dangerous effects.”
— AFP
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