Pope calls on media to adopt "info-ethics"

I am glad to see the Holy Father speaking about this, but I hope his words don't fall on deaf ears. Unfortunately, it can be very profitable to market what is inmoral.

Pope Benedict called on the media on Thursday to practise "info-ethics", saying it was often used irresponsibly to spread violence and impose "distorted models" of life.

In his message for the Catholic Church's World Communications Day, Benedict said that while the media did much good, it was also often used for ideological reasons and tried to create reality rather than report it.

"When communication loses its ethical underpinning and eludes society's control, it ends up no longer taking into account the centrality and inviolable dignity of the human person," he said in the three-page message.

"For this reason it is essential that social communications should assiduously defend the person and fully respect human dignity. Many people now think there is a need, in this sphere, for 'info-ethics', just as we have bioethics in the field of medicine and in scientific research linked to life," he said.

The media, he said, often risked being transformed into what he called "systems aimed at subjecting humanity to agendas dictated by the dominant interests of the day".

Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has often accused the media of promoting consumerism and elements of lifestyles that it considers unethical, such as pre-marital sex and homosexuality. Absolutely right...couples are regularly portrayed having sex outside of marriage. And the homosexual agenda is heavily pushed in the media. Young, impressionable people see this and accept it as normal behavior.

story here

cross-posted at The World...IMHO