Dogs in Heaven? Nope. Another PR Pope article proved false

[MellowDem]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/14/opinion/schlumpf-pope-dogs-go-to-heaven-controversy/index.html?c=opinion

It's hilarious and disgusting to see the Pope's sycophants all over the Internet fall over themselves to believe anything that verifies the image of the Pope the Vatican wants them to have.

The truth is that the Pope is a bigoted asshole that contributes to the death and suffering of many with his bigoted beliefs, and these stories are only meant to make people that identify with this heinous belief system feel less guilty for doing so.

[edhopper]

1. He's the Ronald Regan

of Popes.

Likability trumps substance.

[trotsky]

3. That's a great comparison.

Very apt.

[JDDavis]

7. Agreed, he's a public relations man.

No power, unable to change the huge institution, looks good when all dressed up and taken out into public.

Makes more headlines than Tom Cruise, or one of those other "religious" celebrities.

[skepticscott]

2. Of course...the Vatican PR machine knows that if you tell a lie

that is what people want and desperately NEED to hear, they'll remember it and keep clinging to it, no matter how many "corrections" you issue later. They very cleverly have it both ways. They can deny officially that anything like this was ever said, while knowing that most people will have taken the comforting lie to heart, no matter how many retractions are issued.

[trotsky]

4. What do you expect when they hire a former FOX news consultant?

Get the lie out there, retract it later.

[edhopper]

5. this

that if you tell a lie

that is what people want and desperately NEED to hear, they'll remember it and keep clinging to it

Are we talking about the dog story or all of Catholicism?

[AtheistCrusader]

6. I was duped.

I eagerly and enthusiastically embraced the claimed statement, because of the size of the truck I would then be able to drive through catholic ideology, without scraping the roof, or the sides, or anything.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. nobody wanted to discuss the theological implications

I found that shocking.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. I didn't find it shocking. You couldn't PAY me to try and come up with a plausible defense for that

bullshit.

If I were them, I wouldn't touch it either.

[rug]

8. PR usually means giving info to the media. Here, the media did it on its own.

BTW, I'm curious. What other sorts of disgusting things do you find hilarious?

[edhopper]

10. Finding people both disgusting and hilarious

is the mainstay of the Daily Show.

[rug]

11. That's a peculiar reaction to what they do.

[edhopper]

12. And yet

it makes a great TV Show.

[rug]

13. I see what they do as much chrper than disgust.

You step on dogshit and you're disgusted. They do way more than that.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. EVERYTHING is hilarious when sped up 50% and dubbed over with Yakkety Sax.

[Humanist_Activist]

16. It seems like sometimes the media likes to create the narrative, even if the subject...

of that narrative doesn't agree. What happens when the Pope does ANYTHING seems to fall in this category. He's labelled a "progressive" and his words misinterpreted, mistranslated, and sometimes words are fed into his mouth to make him appear progressive. I think this isn't an organized PR machine so much as wishful thinking and typical bad reporting on religion and religious figures.

[LostOne4Ever]

17. And months from now we will still be hearing about this story

[font style="font-family:papyrus,'Brush Script MT','Infindel B',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Because the media is great at getting the initial story out, but doesn't put in even a fraction of the same effort with the retraction.[/font]