How We Got Where We Are, and the Value of the Past

By Archbishop Charles Chaput
Catholic Philly
September 27, 2012

http://catholicphilly.com/category/archbishop-chaput/weekly-message-from-archbishop-chaput/


In early September, the Gallup Organization found that 60 percent of Americans – a record high — have little or no trust in the mass media's ability "to report the news fully, accurately and fairly." The sharpest decline in trust occurred among political independents, the least partisan American voters.

This isn't much of a surprise. Media coverage of religion, for example, has been eroding in both quality and fairness for years, as tracked by excellent web sites like getreligion.org. But the shift to social advocacy and the decay of professional standards have hurt the credibility of journalism on a whole range of issues. For Gallup, the trend "poses a challenge to democracy and to creating a fully engaged citizenry."

Why should this matter for Catholics? Two reasons.