Taking the media’s example
Posted by Nick Milne on July 7, 2009
Since it’s apparently all the rage to conduct one’s reportage on Caritas in Veritate with a sort of furious tunnel vision, emphasising only those elements that are either shocking to the reader or ideologically important to the reporter, I think I’ll just ignore everything else about this marvelous thirty-thousand-word document and triumphantly declare:
POPE SUPPORTS COPYRIGHT REFORM
From Article 22 of the enyclical:
The world’s wealth is growing in absolute terms, but inequalities are on the increase. In rich countries, new sectors of society are succumbing to poverty and new forms of poverty are emerging. In poorer areas some groups enjoy a sort of “superdevelopment” of a wasteful and consumerist kind which forms an unacceptable contrast with the ongoing situations of dehumanizing deprivation. “The scandal of glaring inequalities” continues. Corruption and illegality are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones. Among those who sometimes fail to respect the human rights of workers are large multinational companies as well as local producers. International aid has often been diverted from its proper ends, through irresponsible actions both within the chain of donors and within that of the beneficiaries. Similarly, in the context of immaterial or cultural causes of development and underdevelopment, we find these same patterns of responsibility reproduced. On the part of rich countries there is excessive zeal for protecting knowledge through an unduly rigid assertion of the right to intellectual property, especially in the field of health care. At the same time, in some poor countries, cultural models and social norms of behaviour persist which hinder the process of development.
Never mind the rest; we now know all that is fit to be known.

Brian Visaggio said
I haven’t seen much coverage either way.
Nick Milne said
Didn’t you hear? Sarah Palin did something and Michael Jackson continues to be dead. That media outlets are reporting any other news at all surely speaks to their dedication and professionalism.
Brian Visaggio said
The first four stories on CNN.com are about Michael Jackson’s continued death. It’s as though they expect something to change.
I am honestly bewildered by this. Never in a million years did I think they’d be talking about Michael Jackson’s death for *two weeks*. Two weeks of *constant news*.