When priests play god – the CBCP takes on fake news.

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The CBCP recently released a partial list of websites that carry fake or unverified contents as part of its Pastoral guideline on the use of social media. The CBCP also published a guideline on how to best utilize the power of social media in a socially responsible way. According to the CBCP, social media is a double edged sword that can be used for both harm and good. In order to ensure that Catholics in the Philippines use social media responsibly, the CBCP made this guideline (see full pastoral guideline here). According to the CBCP, the guideline is meant to ensure that Christians continue to use the internet wisely to build a society that is healthy and open to sharing. It pointed out that social media has recently been a source of discord, disagreements and misinformation that destroys the unity we all have to strive for in society. 

The guideline in itself is mostly common sense but creating a list of sites to avoid is the wrong way to go about it. The CBCP has fallen into the trap set by the main-stream media in their quest to regain power over society. Labeling something as fake news has been a tactic by the main stream media to discredit something or someone by the mere association of the term. Fake news has been applied on some many things and so many situations that it has lost its meaning but has gained so much stigma. What exactly is fake news? Is it satire news? Is it government propaganda? Is it misleading headlines? Is it unverified stories? Is it made-up facts and data? Is it conspiracy theories? Is it personal opinion packaged to be news? The most common answer we get today is that fake news is all of it. This is precisely why it is a problem and why I hate the label fake news. It has become an excuse for main-stream media to be complacent and a way for it to hang on to its waning legitimacy. 

The reality is that information today flows at such a rapid pace and with everyone being so interconnected through social media, the impact of any information is felt more rapidly over a more diverse audience. Traditional media knows this and is actively trying to harness this trend. Just look at how many of media companies have a Social Media presence and a dedicated digital version of their contents. Traditional media tries to compete for our attention in social media platforms and the web by using the same tactics used by so called “fake news” sources. Traditional media uses sensational and misleading headlines to attract attention. Traditional media plays with our emotions to gain more traction in the web. Traditional media has also been found to be guilty of publishing a story that it has not verified. The dangers the CBCP identified in its pastoral guideline applies equally to all sources of information on the web, be it blogs or traditional media outlets. What makes the CBCP list problematic is that it absolves traditional media of the same sins it proclaims to fight. What this creates is a situation where in traditional media retains its legitimacy without the corresponding responsibility.

The CBCP feeds into the idea propagated by traditional media outlets that they are always legitimate sources of credible information by the mere fact that they carry the label of “journalists”. This traditional legitimacy is not unfounded. True investigative journalism has been an important source of information to society and has been an important pillar in a vibrant democracy. The problem is that the media we have today – the click bait hungry type – do not follow and play by the same rules as the white-beards of true investigative journalism of the past. The media we have today is frantically trying to keep up with the pace of a news cycle driven by virality and not societal value.

The CBCP’s pastoral letter is ignorant, naive and dangerous. Instead of teaching its flock how to be discerning and how to identify legitimate stories from noise, it seeks to keep its flock blind and stupid. If the CBCP is truly concerned about the online welfare of its flock, it should teach them best practices on how to verify a story they read online and how to use their reason to judge which content is news and which content is propaganda. Instead of trusting the ability of its flock to use reason and to think for themselves, the CBCP wants its flock to believe in the wisdom of its priests to tell them what is truthful news and what is fake news. Instead of trusting the creative wisdom of its flock, the CBCP wants its flock to trust in the perceived god-like infallibility of its priests. When priests play god, history has shown us that nothing good comes out of it.

p.s. – The partial list of supposed sources of “fake news” looks highly partisan. It makes it look like there are no Liberal party opposition sources of “fake news”.