When Facts tell Fiction

Even Catholic media can lie to you. Here's how headlines turn ordinary events into manufactured scandal—and why Catholics need clearer eyes.

Sometimes the loudest headlines aren’t the ones telling the truth—they’re just the ones telling a story. In this segment clip from “The Muck and Mire of Catholic Life” (Audio here at StE | Video on YouTube) I walk through how an event got spun into a manufactured drama just by rearranging the facts. Five people out of 1,300 becomes the whole headline. A public lunch is transubstantiated into a backroom private audience—minus the miracle—and a Jubilee banquet becomes a secret Vatican doctrinal strategy session. Nothing false is said, but the truth disappears in the framing.

Follow me on socials X | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Discord

Here’s the part worth carrying with you: deception in reporting rarely shows up as an outright lie. It shows up in what’s emphasized, what’s left out, and how the pieces are arranged. The media has an obligation to report the facts, but they don’t necessarily use the facts to tell you the truth, and that’s found even in some Catholic media.

See the Signs, not the Headlines

If a headline creates an emotional reaction before it gives information, that should make you pause. If the story leads you to assume something it never actually states, pause again. Ask the simple questions: What actually happened? What are the facts? Are the facts tied directly, or in a roundabout way? Does this report seem to leave out facts, demonstrated by holes in the story or narrative?

Catholics need clarity more than outrage. Truth doesn’t need drama to make its point, and neither should we. If there’s drama, it’s not just to get your attention, it’s often to cover up deceptive reporting. Emotional triggers disengage the mind and reason. So slow down, read past the headline, and read past the first two or three paragraphs because usually the real story starts at around paragraph-four. Don’t let someone else do your thinking for you, or manipulate you to complete the lie that they can’t legally tell themselves. We have enough real challenges in Catholic life. Manufactured ones only distract us from the work Christ actually gave us to do.

Link to my article covering the facts of the Jubilee for the Poor lunch, referenced in the video

Don’t forget to follow me on socials X | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Discord