Pope Francis & Fake News
In the lead-up to the 2016 election, one of the most widely shared pro-Trump fake stories involved Pope Francis. The article featured a photo of the pontiff and the headline: “Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president” (Ritchie, 2016). It had initially appeared on a site called WTOE 5 News, which was masquerading as a local news channel. The story was false; the pope had not endorsed any candidate. According to Buzzfeed, the fake story generated 960,000 Facebook engagements by Election Day. WTOE 5 news had a disclaimer on its homepage that said, “Most articles on wt0e5news.com are satire or pure fantasy” (Ritchie, 2016, para. 6). Still, the number of people who may have seen, believed, and shared the fake story likely far outnumber those who may have come across the disclaimer.
Later that year, on December 7, Pope Francis spoke out about the dangers of fake news and disinformation. He told the Belgian Catholic newspaper, Tertio, that “it directs opinion in only one direction and omits the other part of the truth” (Sherwood, 2016, para. 6). He added that spreading falsehoods is akin to “the sickness of coprophilia, an abnormal interest in excrement” (Sherwood, 2016, para. 1).