Trust but verify

What does Pope Francis have in common with Stalin, Ronald Reagan, and Lenin? Variations of an old Russian proverb antedating all of them… “trust but verify”.

We would do well to practice “trust but verify” in our deeply polarized world filled with so much “fake news”.

Fake news is once again on Pope Francis’ mind, especially on this latest World Day of Communications.

Pope Francis and the dynamics of ‘fake news”

Pope Francis speaks often of ”fake news”.

He dedicated his  2018 Message for World Communications Day  to “Fake News and the Journalism of Peace. He reminds us that “the effectiveness of fake news is primarily due to its ability to mimic real news, to seem plausible.”

“Disinformation is often based on deliberately evasive and subtly misleading rhetoric and at times the use of sophisticated psychological mechanisms.

“The strategy of this skilled “Father of Lies” (Jn 8:44) is precisely mimicry, …the tempter’s “deconstruction” then takes on an appearance of truth: “God knows that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). God’s paternal command, meant for their good, is discredited by the seductive enticement of the enemy.

“This biblical episode brings to light an essential element for our reflection: there is no such thing as harmless disinformation.”

In his Message for the 54^th World Communications Day, (2020), he says to beware of

“destructive and provocative stories that wear down and break the fragile threads binding us together as a society. By patching together bits of unverified information, repeating banal and deceptively persuasive arguments, sending strident and hateful messages, we do not help to weave human history, but instead strip others of their dignity.

Francis – World Day of Communications 2021

“This year, then, I would like to devote this Message to the invitation to “come and see”, which can serve as an inspiration for all communication that strives to be clear and honest, in the press, on the internet, in the Church’s daily preaching and in political or social communication. “Come and see!”  This has always been the way that the Christian faith has been communicated, from the time of those first encounters on the banks of the River Jordan and on the Sea of Galilee.

He speaks of “the risk that original investigative reporting in newspapers and television, radio and web newscasts is being replaced by a reportage that adheres to a standard, often tendentious narrative.”

“The crisis of the publishing industry risks leading to a reportage created in newsrooms, in front of personal or company computers and on social networks.

We face the danger of relying exclusively on news as presented in either left or right-leaning echo chambers.

“All of us are responsible for the communications we make, for the information we share, for the control that we can exert over fake news by exposing it. All of us are to be witnesses of the truth: to go, to see and to share.”

Let us pray with Pope Francis

…where there is shouting, let us practice listening;

where there is confusion, let us inspire harmony;

where there is ambiguity, let us bring clarity;

where there is exclusion, let us offer solidarity;

where there is sensationalism, let us use sobriety;

where there is superficiality, let us raise real questions;

where there is prejudice, let us awaken trust;

where there is hostility, let us bring respect;

where there is falsehood, let us bring truth.

Amen.

Do you

• Trust but verify by going beyond your preferred political echo chamber?
• Forward “good news” when you see it?
• Pray to be an “instrument of truth”?

Click below for an audio version of this Vincentian Mindwalk