Washington D.C., Jun 12, 2010 / 15:06 pm
A new study published on Friday by the Pew Forum contrasts the differences in media coverage of the clerical sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church by secular and religious news outlets. Among the significant finds of the report are the fact that the Holy Father “though not accused of abusing anyone himself,” attracted more coverage by secular media “than all the other key figures combined,” according to the study.
The report, released on June 11, was conducted jointly by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, both of which belong to the non-profit Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C.
Opening the report by discussing secular media coverage of the recently surfaced sex abuse cases – as covered by 52 mainstream U.S. news outlets – the Pew Forum remarked that “media scrutiny this year zeroed in on the Pope himself.”
“During the six-week period from March 12 through April 27, Pope Benedict XVI was a major focus of more than half the stories on the scandal in the mainstream U.S. media, including print, radio, network television, cable TV and online news sources,” the report said.