Madam, – In these challenging times for the Catholic Church there was good news last week. Thousands of people in the four provinces of Ireland came together to celebrate and venerate the relics of St John Vianney, Curé of Ars.
The media has a responsibility to report good news and bad news in an impartial manner and the church knows this only too well. However, the twisting of a headline in order to flatter an article undermines this principle. The prominent publication by The Irish Times of survey results, undertaken by market research company Amárach (“Most people no longer trust church, Government or banks” April 29th), is a case in point.
Ironically this survey measured “trust” and found that the greatest percentage of people, in descending order, with no trust “at all” in government, banking and church, were 44, 41 and 32 per cent respectively. While this is a reflection of the sad reality of our times, its doesn’t explain why the headline order was changed so that the church was positioned first.
We are informed that 59 per cent of people distrust the media. This is a higher figure of distrust than applies to the church, yet it doesn’t make the headline. Unlike the analysis offered by the article concerning the church, there are no reasons given to explain this tripling of distrust in the media since 2001. What a pity.
The church needs to earn public trust and an impartial media is best placed to report on this key issue. – Yours, etc,
