The coronavirus has brought with it concern and panic across the world, especially after cases were detected outside of China the past two weeks. Aside from China, the other country severely impacted by the outbreak has been Italy.
During his weekly general audience that coincided with Ash Wednesday, the pope reduced his contact with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, shaking hands with only a few people. The pope then circled the square in the popemobile, blessing them from a distance.
At the end of his audience, the pope assured all those affected by the coronavirus of his closeness and prayers. He said his prayers were also with the health care professionals and public officials who were working hard to help patients and stop the spread of the disease.
This is where the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, stops being solely a health story and crosses into religion reporting, especially when you throw in the Vatican, Pope Francis and the Lenten season. Paramount here on the part of journalists is not to incite fear — but to report the facts.
Here’s a fact: Pope Francis, a day after shaking hands with the faithful on Ash Wednesday, did not get coronavirus, something the Vatican confirmed on Tuesday. The latest is that he is recovering from what the Vatican is calling a cold, forcing him to bail on a prescheduled week-long Lenten retreat.
You wouldn’t necessarily know all this from reading Twitter or Reddit, forums where conspiracy theories run amok.
People posted all kinds of misinformation the following day once the Vatican announced the pope had a cold and was altering his public schedule. This is on top of the notion that some people already think the coronavirus is being made into a bigger threat than it really is because of news coverage or as a political weapon against President Donald Trump.
.@jejohnson322 shares his concerns about misinformation about COVID-19: “There will be no one in the government who is authoritative enough to get through to my family.”
“I spent my whole career becoming a journalist to tell you to stop sharing this.”https://t.co/Qy6wUo3KHR
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 3, 2020
While most news organizations showed restraint (a Google News search provides a snapshot), I received numerous texts over the last few days asking me if the pope had coronavirus. The questions led me to believe the press as a whole did a poor job reporting this accurately. It also confirmed that random people tweeting misinformation, whether intentionally or as a joke, leads to fake news. We appear to be at a point where all the good journalism in the world can’t compete with rumors.
This is where the modern-day journalist needs to come in, report the facts and make them widely available to readers. In some cases, news organizations — in a bid to collect clicks and boost readership on stories — misrepresent the truth in headlines. Some did just that in the hours and days after the pontiff caught a cold.
One poor device employed by some was asking the question in the headline in an effort to get the word coronavirus in the headline, a topic that has been trending on social media for days. In Britain, The Express posted this headline: “Does the pope have coronavirus? Pope Francis sick.” The story goes on to talk about the virus impacting Italy and residents in several northern cities being quarantined. Here are how the last four paragraphs read:
Pope Francis, 83, has fallen ill and cancelled events in the basilica on Thursday and has been forced to cancel all official audiences for a second day on Friday.
During an afternoon Ash Wednesday service in Rome, the pope appeared to have a cold, was blowing his nose, coughing and spoke with a hoarse voice.
The pontiff, who had shown solidarity with coronavirus sufferers during his service said: “I wish, again, to express my closeness to those who are ill with coronavirus and to health-care workers who are caring for them.”
Pope Francis carried out the rest of his Thursday schedule in his residence and continued to do so on Friday.
Pope Francis “appeared to have a cold” is the confirmation that he doesn’t have coronavirus.
Talk about burying the lede — on purpose — to get people to read to the bottom of the article.
Certainly, one may point out that The Express, a tabloid-format newspapers, is no beacon of journalism. It matters little in today’s world where people get their news on social media, a blender of both legitimate and fake news. On the internet, the click-bait often gets more attention and misinformation spreads.
This wasn’t limited to a large daily like The Express. One Indianapolis-based radio station, 92.1 WIBC, also got in on the act with this headline: “Don’t freak out, but Pope Francis might have coronavirus.” Compound the problem, the people at the radio station talked about it on air.
The story never reports on whether the pope has the virus or not, limiting it to this:
Concern over the Pope’s well-being circulated on social media after he was seen coughing and blowing his nose during Ash Wednesday celebrations, in which he greeted people without a mask.
On Sunday he interacted with 40,000 people in Bari, hugging and kissing those in the crowds after expressing his support for those infected by coronavirus and the health workers treating them.
There was also plenty of solid reporting done around Francis and the question of how sick he really was.
Once again, most of that was done by the Catholic press. America magazine, for example, reported under the headline, “Pope Francis, suffering from a cold, again cancels public events,” the following:
For the second day in a row, Pope Francis, who is suffering from a cold, suspended his public audiences scheduled for today, Feb. 28. But “he celebrated Mass this morning and as usual, greeted those present,” Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, told journalists.
To counteract any concerns, however, the Vatican spokesman said the meetings Francis had scheduled to hold at Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he lives, “continued in the regular way,” just as happened yesterday, when he met a delegation from the Global Catholic Climate Movement.
Francis was scheduled to address participants today at the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, but instead his prepared talk was read by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the academy. Yesterday, he had to skip his annual meeting with the clergy of Rome, and then his speech was read by his vicar for the Rome diocese, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis.
Below are my other two candidates for a job well done. The first, Catholic News Agency, started their story this way:
Pope Francis postponed his official audiences for Friday, but maintained his private meeting schedule at his residence in Vatican City. The decision comes after the pope was reported to have a “slight” illness by a Vatican spokesman.
Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni told journalists Feb. 28 that Pope Francis offered Mass in Santa Marta and “greeted participants at the end, as usual,” before deciding to cancel his audiences and remain in his residence.
The other, Catholic News Service, began their story this way:
Pope Francis did not attend a traditional penitential service with priests of the Diocese of Rome due to a mild cold, the Vatican said.
In a statement Feb. 27, Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said that due to “a slight indisposition,” the pope preferred to remain close to the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.
However, “other commitments will proceed normally,” Bruni said. According to the Vatican, the pope met with members of the Global Catholic Climate Movement in one of the meeting rooms of the Paul VI audience hall.
There were a few common threads to note here. The word coronavirus did not appear either in the headline or the lede.
All of them did mention the outbreak, further down in their reporting, to detail the situation and give context. None of it was done to get people to click on a story or misrepresent the facts. This isn’t too much to ask for at a time when misinformation can spread quickly. In this case, it could cause more fear and panic during a severe health crisis.
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