“In some instances, you all scared the shit out of people,” Nutter said, referring to why some people avoided the city during the visit by Pope Francis.
Most news organizations reported what Nutter said but they either printed the word as s____ or they broadcast the sound bite with a bleep. Are those the best way to handle that?
Many news organizations continue to call the Pope's visit "historic" and they said the Sunday mass was "blessed."
Was history made? Was the event blessed? What do those words mean? And is it the role of the journalists to make such proclamations?
13 comments:
The choice of the news organizations to remove Nutter's expletive was a smart idea. While journalism endeavors to present the full truth, it is sometimes wise to exercise prudence. History was made when Pope Francis came to visit Philadelphia. I believe that any occurrence of such magnitude (in that it has affected the lives of a relatively large number of people) should be considered history. It was, however, a journalistic mistake to label his visit as blessed, in light of the fact that some people might not view it as such. Regardless of whether or not his visit truly was blessed, I still maintain that history was made this weekend.
The decision to print the word as s____ and bleep out the word in audio recordings was a smart decision by the news programs. Nothing good is going to come out of displaying the word and most people, if not all, are smart enough to understand the story with the omission of the word.
I do not believe that history was made in this journey. Historic events are events that massively change the world, events that will one day be in our children's history textbooks. This trip of the pope will just fall under the tons of other pope trips and will be forgotten about by Thanksgiving.
Blessed, as stated today in class, means to become holy. I believe that the blessedness of this event is different for each person. One woman may have been saved this weekend and declared this event as the most blessed event in her lifetime. Another woman may have had terrible time dealing with the crowds and security and believed that this event was in fact not blessed. Everyone had such a totally different experience that it would not be smart to label the entire event as blessed or not blessed.Finally, it is not the job of journalists to make this proclamation, it is the job of the people who participated in this event to make this proclamation. They truly experienced the events and so they would have the most accurate portrayal of the effects this event had.
Mayor Nutter made himself look like an idiot. As a politician, he should know that when you put the media on blast, the media will do the same to you. By blaming the media for the city not living up to the hype for pope weekend, he shifted all responsibility from himself and the city, showing that maybe it isn't a bad thing that he is leaving office.
The way most news organizations handled Nutter's remark was the best way because some viewers could have found it offensive. This wasn't the first time the Pope visited Philadelphia, but it was the first time for Pope Francis in particular. In fact, it was his first time in the United States in general. History wasn't necessarily made for everyone, but it definitely was for the thousands of people in the Catholic community who came out to see him and were personally affected by the event. However, journalists should not be describing the papal visit as "blessed" because it's not their role to make these proclamations. This role belongs to the people who actually experienced it.
I think that this story is closely related to the Temple vs Penn State game and whether or not that game was a downfall or not. The fact the Pope came and held a mass is a cold hard fact and is the truth. Whether or not it was "blessed" or "historic" is a subjective idea. The role of journalists is to report the news based off of solid facts not make proclamations such as the ones previously stated. In regards to Mayor Nutter, I believe journalists handled what he said properly. The journalists are reporting on exactly what the mayor said so there generally isn't anything really wrong with quoting it. Not only that, but the way they handled it is also appropriate because there was no need to print out exactly what he said. Otherwise, the journalists handled his remarks appropriately.
It doesn't matter whether or not they bleed it, if you curse you curse if you don't you're not gonna suddenly start doing it because the mayor did it. And if enough people started using a curse word casually it will turn into a regular word, like "crap". So fuck censorship.
I think it is easy to say that Mayor Nutter embarrassed himself here and he tried blaming the media for some reason because he may have thought the lower than expected turnout made a bad impression on him. Everyone already has a bad impression of Nutter anyway, so this really wasn't a big deal. He blamed the media and that shouldn't have happened. They did their job and now they will probably be firing right back at Nutter.
I cannot speak to whether or not the event was "historic" or "blessed", or what they even mean, but I can say that I think journalists use such terms in order to create hype in their pieces. In both of my journalism classes I have learned that using adjectives is a slippery slope towards bad journalism, so I can only speculate that the media has used these adjectives in order to get their audience excited. I an ideal world, our sources of news don't decide what is "blessed" and what is not. Those kinds of proclamations should be left to the individual.
Amen, Jesse.
- George
I believe it was a historic event, but others might feel otherwise. Journalists have to remain unbiased. Journalists should report facts about the event but not opinions. As for what Nutter said, they should of just had the word there.
It was definitely a historic event, and blessed. Historic means that it was significant in the history of our city. It was the first time a pope has visited the city since 1979 (I think that's the right date?). Blessed means holy and sacred, which it definitely was. It is not the journalist's job, however, to make such claims. If they think it is, they need to prove it by providing examples and by also including the opposite views to allow the reader/viewer/listener to make their own decision.
Adriana Vela
This was an amazing event I went to it. I think Michael Nutter should have not made his remark. Have the Pope come to our city made it historic and I believe a positive impact in our city.
I believe that the media did have a role in how many people attended the event. I do believe that history was made regardless of the amount of people that actually went to see the pope. He came to Philadelphia and it created a buzz around the city, while also making history at the same time. This was a blessed event because the Pope is seen as a very high member of the Catholic faith. By him coming here and blessing not only individuals, but other things in the city as well, it allowed for his trip to be considered blessed. The role the journalist played was reporting all the news on the Pope, this included the crowds. By them reporting on the crowds it made people scared that it was going to be to crowded and overwhelmed. Although I agree with what Mayor Nutter said I do not believe he should have made his comment public.
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