My campaign re the Vatican visit (also posted in GDP)

[LAS14]

A lot of DU time is taken up with a day or so at a time of sorting out what really happened in some situation. Understandably there is partial information, second hand information, wishful thinking, etc. I sincerely doubt that there are anywhere near as many outright lies as people are accused of.

In the case of Sanders’ trip to the Vatican this syndrome repeated itself. But in this case we were presented with stark extremes of truth vs spin regarding whether or not Sanders met with the Pope. At the spin end, major outlets like ABC, NPR, CNN and the Washington Post took the Sanders campaign hook line and sinker. Sanders had a meeting (in one case “an audience”) with the Pope. At the truth end, some wonderful person got a video of the Pope explaining the circumstances of their polite handshake as he was leaving the building where they both spent the night.

I’m very frustrated by bad information and delight in clarification. So I undertook a campaign to post a response to everyone I could find who was under a mistaken impression about the encounter.

I got a lot of push back from people chiding me (to put it mildly) for putting so much importance on this relatively minor event. It’s true that the whole trip annoyed me. Sanders showed bad judgment in setting up a situation which the public could so easily misunderstand, even without the spin meisters’ efforts. I do think Sanders has a genuine interest in the Pope’s message about inequality, but his staff should have known better. But cynically go after the Catholic vote (to whatever extent that played into it) was not my motivation. Rather, I wanted to take the rare opportunity to correct misinformation in a really un-arguable fashion…. The Pope’s own words. Of course, I guess, this being DU, some will accuse him of lying…

And, in case anyone has missed it, here, in the Pope's own words, is what happened re "the meeting."

[lunamagica]

1. Some are claiming now that he never said Psychiatrist. He clearly says "psiquiatra" at the end

it is the last word

[LAS14]

2. The official Vatican news release...

... left that out, so I've heard.

[lunamagica]

3. I didn't know that. But this one is ourt there for all to see. Clearly, the Pope was upset. I doubt

that normally he would have said something like that, but he wasn't happy about this.

[greatlaurel]

4. THe callous and selfish disregard BS had for the Pope and the Syrian refugees is shocking

BS has disqualified himself from any elected office by his callous attempt of co-opting the Pope's mission to help the Syrian refugees by the BS campaign. BS has shown to be a completely selfish and uncaring person who has no interest in helping anyone, but himself. I cannot understand the popularity of such a nasty person unless it is due to the right wing operatives who are working in desperation to prevent Hillary Clinton from being the Democratic Party nominee.

[Little Star]

5. Yep! It's all about Bernie.

[2naSalit]

7. I place the vast majority

of responsibility for this debacle on his handlers, including his wife... who is Catholic. And I think your last sentence... could be some of his handlers are infiltrators, I am certain that many of his "supporters" are, especially the ones with no inkling of manners or decorum, paid trolls.

[LAS14]

9. Someone in GDP claimed that the Pope's trip...

... to Lesbos wouldn't have received near the attention it got if Bernie hadn't gone to Rome. Talk about living in a bubble!!!!!

[DemonGoddess]

6. This grab at the spotlight against

the Pope's own encyclical published that very day, and a humanitarian mission the next day, really needs to be seen for what it is. Instead of the press focusing on the Pope's mission in going to Greece, they're focusing on Sanders. This takes away what he was TRYING to show, in bringing refugees back and helping them get settled into a country different than their own, and done in a way that is not demeaning, nor creating ghettos.

[LAS14]

10. Fortunately, on TV, anyway, all the Pope news was...

... about the Lesbos trip. It looks like Sanders only made the internet.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. #FeelTheFacts

[LAS14]

11. Thanks for this!

I tweeted my 3rd, 4th and 5th tweets to NPR, CNN and ABC yesterday, complaining about their coverage of "the meeting." I just searched for #FeelTheFacts. It's helpful in my current effort to figure out the difference between @ and #. Maybe Hillary will get an online presence yet!!!!!