Debates about the concept of objectivity in news coverage have been around for a long time — but now they are heating up to shockingly intense levels.
Objectivity, as it pertains to reporting, refers to fairness and nonpartisanship on the part of journalists and news organizations in the way they cover stories. An emphasis on objectivity is also linked to journalistic standards for balance, accuracy and showing respect for citizens on all sides of public debates.
This so-called “American model of the press” (click here for background) first evolved in the post-Civil War era and in the early 20th century as a way for U.S. newspapers to report and disseminate information to a wide, diverse body of readers. It allowed for a consistent method of testing that information so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine accuracy.
In a polarized digital age, the practice has been criticized and objectivity is all but dead as news outlets test new business models for struggling newsrooms. As a result, alternatives have emerged, most notably, in the form of a more partisan press that preaches to choirs of digital subscribers.
That brings us — no surprise — to the latest news story to inflame U.S. Catholics.
Despite it being almost two weeks since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Pope Francis at the Vatican, the fallout and reaction from that October 9 private audience continues to reverberate across the American political landscape, especially among Catholics across the doctrinal spectrum. Naturally, some are concerned about how the news media we consume has covered it all.
If facts are what matters here, it’s obvious that San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordelione should play a major role in these debates — since he is Pelosi’s bishop. Thus, he plays a crucial role in determining her sacramental status in the church. Who included his voice in this discussion and who didn’t?
Well, Cordelione talked with the Newsmax team about the meeting. Here’s what he told them four days after Pelosi’s meeting, as reported by Catholic News Agency:
Speaking on Newsmax TV’s Chris Salcedo Show, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone took issue with the host’s assertion that “it seems Pope Francis is allowing one of the world’s biggest abortion cheerleaders to use the Vatican as some sort of validation for her anti-Catholic views.”
“I first of all would urge some caution in jumping to that conclusion,” said Cordileone, whose eccelesial territory includes Pelosi’s congressional district. Cordileone noted that other popes have met with world leaders with questionable pasts, and that Pope Francis is no different.
“I recall I was in Rome at the time back in the ‘80s, when he [Pope John Paul II] met with Kurt Waldheim, who was the president of Austria at the time,” said Cordileone. In 1987, Waldheim was accused of participating in war crimes, including the deportation of Greek Jews to death camps, during his service in the German army in World War II.
“Now, he [Waldheim] denied those allegations, but he created a lot of controversy, and there were widespread protests from Jewish organizations. This is St. John Paul, who did so much to build bridges with the Jewish people,” Cordileone explained the meeting.
“So it underscores that the popes meet with everyone. They meet with world leaders, no matter who they are, even if there are these problematic things in their background or in their policies. They meet with everyone. I don’t think Pope Francis could be clearer in his condemnation of abortion,” he said.
What is Newsmax? For those who don’t know, it is a politically conservative news website and cable TV channel that has positioned itself as a competitor to Fox News over the past year. Newsmax, it should be further noted, has been sued for repeatedly saying that President Donald Trump had been re-elected last year and that election fraud had led to his defeat.
In other words, talking to Pelosi’s bishop is a “conservative” move.
The reaction to the Pelosi visit in the mainstream press is what caught my attention. The lack of objectivity was on full display and could be seen in the sources interviewed by various news organizations seeking reactions to Pelosi’s Vatican jaunt.
Why was Archbishop Cordelione not interviewed by mainstream news outlets?
This was another example of journalists speaking to their respective choirs and, thus, undermining objectivity and balance in the American mainstream press. It’s as if many mainstream journalists wanted to avoid certain Catholic facts about this ongoing story. In ignoring Cordelione and his comments, they achieved just that and an entire swath of news consumers are left only with one side of the story.
Cordelione, of course, is a very big part of this story. That’s a fact, in terms of Catholic law and tradition. And this meeting with the pontiff took place, as Fox News reported, after Cordelione called for a “massive and visible campaign of prayer and fasting” for the conversion of Pelosi's heart on the abortion issue and other matters of church doctrine.
The timing of Pelosi’s Rome trip was a big part of how news coverage was framed. Watch for something similar to take place on October 29 when President Biden, another liberal Catholic who favors pro-abortion laws, is scheduled to meet with Francis.
The Pillar, the Catholic news and commentary website on Substack, provided this context to the Pelosi-Francis meeting:
Cordileone is also among the principal supporters of the bishops’ proposed text on the Eucharist, and has urged that the section on “Eucharistic coherence” be direct about the incongruity between working to advance legal protection for abortion while receiving the Eucharist.
Pelosi’s bishop has, in short, become a leader of the movement among U.S. bishops to respond to the Biden administration’s abortion agenda with more direct pastoral and disciplinary engagement than has been typical of the bishops in recent decades.
With that in mind, some Catholics will ask if Pelosi’s photo call with Francis was an intentional papal rebuke of Cordileone’s approach, coming so soon after the archbishop launched his prayer and fasting campaign on her behalf, and wrote in the Washington Post about the importance of sacramental discipline.
It’s hard to say that definitively. But it does seem certain that bishops on both sides of the issue will take the visit as a message from Francis, especially because Pelosi’s meeting with the pope is not an isolated occasion. It came just after she met with Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Curial head who told Axios last week that he doesn’t think President Joe Biden should be denied the Eucharist — a prospect discussed by U.S. bishops, but not actually in the power of the conference to decide.
The bottom line: Cordelione has been the public face of efforts to challenge Pelosi for her position on abortion, but he’s hasn’t been widely quoted outside of the politically conservative or the traditional Catholic press. Why is that?
Both Newsmax and CNA are considered to be outlets on the right, for example, just as CNN and The New York Times are increasingly seen lurching to the cultural left.
CNN’s website and The New York Times, however, did not cover the Pelosi visit. Why? That’s a good question. It could have something to do with having to present both sides — including Catholic doctrine regarding abortion — and how Pelosi is at odds with the church. There are awkward facts that would need to be covered.
What’s next? The Pillar made this astute observation just this past Friday that provided context to the meeting and what could happen next:
As with the fallout of the Pelosi visit, there will be a lot of back-and-forth about the significance of the audience, which would be run-of-the-mill, almost perfunctory, were it not for the fact that the U.S. government is currently led by two Catholics who are openly, defiantly, (in Biden’s case ever increasingly) at odds with the Church on the inhumanity of legal abortion.
Ever since Inauguration Day, the U.S. bishops and the Vatican have been in a tug-of-war over what to do about the world’s most famous Catholic layman, who also happens to be stridently in favor of the right to end innocent human life in the womb, and a weekly Mass goer.
While the U.S. bishops have debated addressing politicians like Biden’s status and public example in a document on Eucharistic coherence, Rome has preferred a more cordial “business as usual” approach to dealing with the administration. But, with Biden almost sure to come home and make hay from his papal photocall, it is clear the two approaches can and will be pitted against each other, even if both the USCCB and Vatican would prefer they were not.
The root of the problem, it seems to me, is the Vatican has the luxury of occasion. Biden, still less Pelosi, is not a daily concern in Rome. Turning a blind eye to the problem of their Catholicism and abortion activism is an easy diplomatic calculus to make: the headache of “pope vs Catholic president” would be global, and lead to expectations that Francis would or should weigh in on the orthodoxy of every Catholic government leader the world over. No one in Rome wants that, and no one is going to let that happen.
The USCCB continues to debate whether or not to openly discuss Biden’s status in the church, an issue that will certainly intensify as the abortion fight rages in courts and legislatures in Washington, Texas and all across the country.
How the news media cover it — and whether one side will continue to be ignored — matters. Pelosi’s Roman holiday is a stark example of how objectivity has eroded in American journalism.
FIRST IMAGE: Nancy Pelosi press office photo, as used by The Hill.