Fair and Balanced Coverage of the March For Life?

     Hey guys!  I know it's relatively soon for me to be putting out a new blog, but this is for a media project which I thought would be something y'all might want to read as well.

     As we all know, the annual March for Life in Washington D.C. will take place on January 22nd as it does every year.  One thing that we can safely assume will be constant is the media coverage on the event.  Most years, EWTN will be all over the place covering masses, interviewing participants (*cough* like me last year *cough* link here), and just going above and beyond to make sure the world knows about this huge event.

     On the other hand, you have the major media.  Several local stations pick it up every year, true. However, if I recall correctly (this was a few years back), even Fox News, which tends to be more on the conservative side of the ball, only briefly brought up the topic and then moved on.  Even when it does get a bit more than a mention on places like CNN, the people covering it seem to have an obvious bias opinion in favor of abortion which effects their coverage of the subject greatly.

     Obviously, this is wrong on its face, but how exactly would it be considered wrong from a journalist perspective?  Well, one thing that may be an argument brought up is that the media needs to be objective to both sides.  That is, to ensure that they strictly cover the news in its entirety and leave out any biased
opinions towards either side.  The problem is that if you were to argue this, you'd be diving into a debate which has already been hashed over for the past few years.  What is often pointed out is that to REALLY have a news presentation COMPLETELY devoid of ANY biased opinion is near to impossible.  Thus, the more adopted form has become "To be fair and balanced".  This means that even though you agree with one side, you present both sides fairly with an equal defense for both sides.  You also must be true to the facts of what both sides really are.  Now, does that mean it's game over, the media wins, and they get to do whatever they want?  Not so fast.  You see, even in the "fair and balanced" scheme, the major media has still failed to comply to the rules of good journalism.  For instance, a few months ago, my local "Fox" station did a segment on a pro-life protest in front of the State Senator's office. However, when the segment came up, they showed only five quick seconds of the person opposed to abortion, with the other 40 seconds as a pre-recorded tape from a Planned Parenthood Representative.  To make it worse, the station allowed Planned Parenthood to squeeze in lies regarding who they are and what they do without having another voice in opposition.  As we can see, the whole concept of "Fair and Balanced" has been totally abandoned here.  The unfortunate thing is that this isn't just my local station's problem.  Rather, this seems to be a constant occurrence among larger media outlets across the country.  Many journalists have been taking the best arguments for abortion (which even at best, aren't very special), and the weakest arguments for life, pinning them against each other, and saying,"Oh, well this one is obviously better, so our biased opinion is right!"  If you want to claim to be "Fair and Balanced", then you need to actually do it right.

     One might also compare the right way to do this to a well researched YouTube video (you had to see this coming).  A YouTuber decides that there is so much controversy regarding a certain biblical text, he is going to do a ton of research and find EVERY scripture passage he can regarding the subject, put it in context, and make a video on it.  Did the YouTuber have a biased opinion going in? Sure.  However, if he has all his facts straight and is presenting both arguments in their strength to the best of his abilities, is he not being "Fair and Balanced"?

     In short, you have an opinion, and it's okay if you are bias about it.  However, whether it be morally wrong, professionally wrong, or both, you MUST be TRULY "fair and balanced" and not just use it as an excuse show that you favor one side to the other by using your opponent's weakest argument.

Alright, thanks for reading guys, and please be sure to check out my Facebook page and YouTube channel.  Take care, get out there, and be amazing!

God bless,
TheCatholicApologist

A Walk With God

    Hello again blog-o-sphere!  It certainty has been a while!  Unfortunately, I can't promise that that will be changing anytime soon seeing that I am now a college student.  Nevertheless,  I really would like to share with you a cool little reflection I had recently.

    Let's start off by going to Genesis chapter three.  If you've read the beginning of this book, you know that the main theme is the sin of Adam and Eve.  What you may also recall is the knowledge of Adam being able to "Walk with God in the cool of the day".  Now, have you ever looked at that and thought to yourself," How awesome would that be if I could do the same?  What if I could be in Adam's shoes?". Or feet.....the shoe thing didn't come until later.  Anyway, I know for sure that I've thought of this many times.  Isn't it just the coolest thought to entertain?  If only we could actually do such a thing!  

Hang on a minute, what if we actually can do that.  What if we LITERALLY can take a walk with God?  Stop giving me that funny look and just hear me out.

    As you should now, when you go to receive Holy Communion, you are NOT consuming a mere wafer.  Rather, you are taking into your heart the Body Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ Himself.  Now, if I was to ask you what happens after that, you'd probably say something like," I go back to the pew and pray."   Well....at least, I should hope you'd say that as opposed to," I walk right out the door because mass is pretty much over anyway." In that case, I may just have to pull a St. Nicholas on you if you know what I mean.....(kidding). Anyway, before I get on another day's topic, let's move on. 

    The only problem with the answer you should respond with is the fact that it's not quite complete.  You see, instead of the words "I go back..", what should replace it is," I take a walk with God....".  Think about it, if we have Jesus Christ Himself right there in our mouths as we walk, then aren't we, in a manner of speaking, "taking a walk with God"?  Furthermore, the first time man could walk with God was in the Garden of Eden which at the time, could be represented as a sort of heaven at least compared to the rest of the world.  Now that this is made possible again, is it not fitting that we can not only go on that priceless walk, but also, be able to do so in what is "heaven on earth" (A.K.A. The Holy Sacrifice of the mass) as did Adam all those many years ago?

  Yes, kneeling is the most respectful posture to be in when praying (in the Roman Rite), but while you are in the process of getting there, what's to stop you from praying on the way? After all, prayer is like "talking to God" so why not treasure the moment and talk with Him while you walk with Him?  He is the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful God who has humbled Himself to the point of taking on the appearance of bread and wine just so He can be with you in the deepest physical way possible to man.  Don't waste even a moment of that.

    It's not like you are committing a sin if you don't, but I'd definitely recommend taking advantage of the opportunity.  I know I have since I first thought of it a couple weeks back and it has honestly been such a beautiful addition to my mass experience.  I challenge you to do the same!

Thanks for reading everyone and please be sure to check out my YouTube channel and Facebook page! Viva Cristo Rey!

-TheCatholicApologist

The Cross is NOT Brown

    So, I tried making a blog movie review of "The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies", but that sort of flopped.....then I tried to make something about the March for Life...that too failed.  Now let's hope the third time will indeed be a charm, cue the intro!............oh wait, this is a blog, not a vlog......*sigh* well let's just get to today's topic before I screw something else up.

    Throughout most of our lives, we've seen hundreds, maybe even thousands of crucifixes.  However, one thing that most of them have in common is that the cross itself is a regular brown color.  Now, although this is in no way sinful, it has replaced a very significant detail that we should not be ignoring.  What is that detail? It is the fact that when Jesus died, he did not do so on a brown cross, but on a red one.

   No, that's not a typo in case you were wondering.  With that being said, there are two questions you might have.  First, what is my reasoning behind this, and second, even if it is true, why does it matter?

   Well, starting with the first question, let me just start by saying that ORIGINALLY, the cross was indeed brown.  "Well then are you saying that someone randomly decided to go and paint the cross red before Our Lord went to carry it?" No, hold your horses buddy.   As I said, in and of itself, a cross is indeed brown.  However, let's keep in mind that the passion of Our Lord was not nearly as sanitized as many have made it out to be.  Instead, it was more like what you will see if you watch "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson.  Even this though could not FULLY show us all that Jesus suffered for us.  Furthermore, if you've already seen the movie, then you know that it is near impossible to comprehend that even more blood could have been spilt from the Sacred Body of Our Lord.

  Anyway, keeping in mind that Jesus was covered with blood, literally from head to toe, then wouldn't that mean that the cross would then be stained red when Our Lord, carried, laid upon, and hung from it?  Maybe not the ENTIRE thing, but in all likeliness, enough of the cross was stained to still make the form of a red cross on the brown cross. 

    Now comes the second question, "What does it matter?"  Well, let's think about it.  When you are extremely ill to the point where, if you don't get help, you'll die, where will you go?  The hospital.  Now, when we watch movies and such and there happens to be a hospital involved, what is one of the most common symbols that accompanies it?  A red cross.  Do you see the connection?   When you see a red cross, you know where you need to go for help.  A plain red cross shows you where to go for physical help, and the red cross with a man on it (to be specific.....GOD), shows where you need to go to help your soul be cured from sin.

    In conclusion, by itself and simply brown, the cross was merely a place for criminals to go and die.  After being made red by the blood of Christ though, it is still a place for criminals (referring to us who have sinned), however, it is now a place where we find life and healing for the soul as we find physical healing in a hospital. We must constantly remind ourselves of this and I truly believe that one of the ways to start is to show a bit more of what Our Lord went through on our crucifixes.  The more we can see of what He did for us, the better we will be able to see how much He loves us. 

 Thanks for reading and please be sure to check out my YouTube Channel and Facebook page.

God bless,

TheCatholicApologist