Tag Archives: media

March 21, 2013 · 10:34 am

How SQPN Prepared Me for the BBC

As you may have heard through other social media outlets, gentle reader, I was recently on BBC News talking about the election of Pope Francis as the new head of the Catholic Church.  I had held off blogging about this until now because the video was only uploaded to YouTube yesterday, and you can see the results here.  However I also wanted to connect this blog post with SQPN’s giving campaign, since without the experience of having been a regular panelist on the “Catholic Weekend” show on that network for the past year, I doubt very much I would have been ready for this rather unique opportunity.  Moreover, I want to encourage you to consider donating to SQPN as I do, to support their many terrific programs.

A week ago I received an email from someone claiming to be at the BBC in London, which arrived via the email address for this blog.  Curiously, the message began, “Dear Christopher,” which of course is not my name.  It then went on to invite me, as a Catholic blogger, to appear on a BBC discussion panel about the new pope.  I wrote back inquiring as to whether this was some sort of joke, and also pointing out that my name was not in fact Christopher.

The response came that in fact they had been looking for a British blogger, and somehow had ended up contacting me, which is rather odd because when they sent me the link to the blog they were trying to get in touch with, the site had been taken down.  There must have been some link to one of my posts, or some such thing, for The Beeb to end up at my online door.  After explaining that I was not the party in question, but that I was indeed a Catholic and a blogger, as well as a weekly podcast guest, the young lady at the BBC commented that I would be even better for this program than the person she had been trying to locate.

After a lengthy pre-interview conversation via Skype, it was arranged that I should be at the BBC’s studios here in Washington the following morning by 10:30 am.  Fortunately by pure chance I had already made arrangements that evening to have dinner with an old friend and his wife – who just so happens to be from Buenos Aires.  It allowed me the chance to talk to two people with a more secular outlook on the world about their perceptions and thoughts regarding Pope Francis.  It was not a practice run, but  something more like airing ideas that allowed me to come down to some key talking points later.

I arrived earlier than I needed to at the BBC, and sat around for a bit waiting for things to happen.  I had been in a television studio once before in high school, to tape a local commercial about not drinking and driving during prom season – which in my case was not a problem since I did not go to my prom anyway.  However this of course was the newsroom-television studio of the legendary British Broadcasting Corporation, the largest news-gathering organization in the world, and that is somewhat quite different to anticipate.  For here, you are not so much thinking about whether you are going to embarrass your parents, but whether you are going to embarrass your country or your Church, before billions of people who watch the BBC all over the world.

Now there is nothing particularly glamorous about the newsroom of the BBC in Washington when you actually get to see it in person, which I imagine is rather what other international news organizations’ newsrooms are like as well.  There is a strange mixture of people in shirts and ties mingling about with people who look as though they have slept in a mechanic’s jumpsuit for a week.  There are tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment hanging about everywhere, big lines of duct tape running every which way all over the carpets, and people running in and out doing whatever it is they are doing.  It reminded me more of a doctor’s waiting room than the theatre.

Indeed, when they took me back to the camera room where I would be shooting, with its animated backdrop of the White House, the space felt eerily reminiscent of going to have x-rays taken.  I was hooked up with a microphone and earpiece, and told where to look, and where to sit.  Then a British voice came on in my ear from London telling me what to do, and that periodic whisper in my ear became my lifeline for the next hour or so.

Everyone was very kind and tried to put me at ease, though of course because I was in a remote studio rather than on set in London, at the time it was difficult to know for certain whether I was coming across well or not.  In our normal conversations with other people we have not only their voices, but also their facial expressions, gestures, and so on to tell us whether we are getting through to them, making them upset, or what have you.  When you are simply listening to disembodied voices, as I was, it is a bit more difficult to know whether you are doing it right.

And yet ironically enough, it was at this precise moment where my past year of experience on SQPN’s “Catholic Weekend” show came in tremendously useful.  Originally we recorded the show via Skype, just using voices, which of course makes sense since a podcast is more like a radio show than a television program.  As a result, one became more and more accustomed to listening for those audio cues and breaks to step in or to step back.  It is a skill which I still have to master, but which I am certainly getting better at with time.

Thus, even though I could not see anyone I was talking to on the BBC, I very quickly fell into the same pattern I would have recording an episode of “Catholic Weekend” – albeit not in my jammies with a cup of coffee,  sifting through the technical train wreckage and laughing at bad puns before we go on the air.  Nevertheless it turned out to be wonderful training for this, which meant that whatever I may have looked like, I felt very relaxed on camera.  It is difficult to describe but once the lights go on, YOU go on, as well.  Concerns about whether you will do well or not simply evaporate and you just do what you are there to do.

The reader – or rather, viewer – can judge for himself whether he thinks I did well or not, but I will say that my “handler” at the BBC emailed me when I returned to the office and told me I did great and that they would love to have me on again if I were willing.  It remains to be seen whether I will do so, since it is unlikely they will cover a topic of such interest to me personally again any time soon.  However I do want to say how grateful I am to them for giving me this opportunity not only to speak about my Faith and about our new Holy Father Pope Francis, but also to Father Roderick, Captain Jeff, and everyone at SQPN, for without the past year of experience in podcasting I would probably not have done nearly as decent a job as I (arguably) did.

BBC

The author looking somewhat smug in his Churchill dot necktie.

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January 8, 2013 · 10:59 am

On Serving Your Audience

Last evening I made what I considered to be a rather witty, pithy comment on social media, which I will not repeat here, and which caused some distress on the left and misinterpretation on the right.  Unfortunately trying to explain the subtleties of language to an audience which did not grasp it was ultimately futile, yet in the end the fault was mine.  For when you have an audience in the first place, it is paradoxically not a position of leadership, but rather one of servitude which you occupy.

While I cannot claim to be any great wordsmith, I will admit that I do have a general facility for language, which has not only served me well professionally and personally, but which also draws me to others who have a similar affection for the joy of language.  That being said, it is important to realize that words are meant to be tools, not means of tawdry manipulation.  Even if you are the one doing the writing or the speaking, as a pundit, or politician, or academic, your audience deserves better than platitudes and pandering, and has the right to your respect.

Unfortunately we are all too well-aware at present of how easy it is to be anointed a lord of public opinion, whether one deserves the title or not.  And here we have yet another opportunity to look into some of the ideas of Castiglione, the patron of this blog, rather than the self-centered and grasping Machiavelli, who seems to have the upper hand these days, with regard to how the public is treated.  Machiavelli may have argued in his “Discourses” that public discussion was a better way of achieving results than relying on the wisdom of princes, but in “The Prince”, he was always more than happy to look down on an audience as being little more than ignorant sheep, to be used for his own personal gain.

In advising how a leader ought to address the public, Machiavelli counseled that he ought to appear “merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite.”  If he does this, Machiavelli argued, “he will be praised by everybody, because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.”  No doubt we can all think of contemporary social, political, and opinion leaders to whom this description might be very readily applied.

In complete contrast, Castiglione recognizes that it is in one’s own genuine good behavior toward himself and toward others that the leader gains esteem.  He despises the kind of unctuous, all-things-to-all-people behavior advocated by Machiavelli, and rather neatly points to how such behavior ultimately leads to things like moral relativism.  ”And they cite a certain authority out of their own head, which says ‘si non caste, tamen caute’ [if not chastely, then at least cautiously], and with this they think to cure every great evil, and with good arguments to persuade anyone who is not wary that all sin, however grave it might be, is easily pardoned of God, provided it remain secret and does not give rise to bad example.”

Castiglione criticizes professional sophists (such as Machiavelli) who “from over-loquacity sometimes go beyond bounds and become silly and pointless, because they do not consider the kind of person with whom they are speaking, the place where they are, the occasion, or the soberness and modesty which they ought above all things to maintain.”  Rather than follow their example, Castiglione counsels that a leader not only concern himself with big issues that tend to attract the most attention, but to have the personal humility and sense of service to realize that he ought to be more concerned with helping others than himself:

I would have him take care to heed not only the matters already mentioned, but those which are much smaller, and as far as possible to understand all details affecting his people, nor ever so believe or trust any one of his ministers as to confide to that one alone the bridle and control of his government.  For there is no man who is very apt for all things, and much greater harm arises from the credulity of lords than from their incredulity…

Of course, probably very few of us are going to end up serving in high positions of public office, heading major corporations, or as weekly columnists/commentators in major media outlets.  Yet all of us will find ourselves in situations where others are looking to us for our opinions and guidance.  We need to respect those who are seeking our views, enough to realize what a privilege and a responsibility it is to be sought out in this way.

As Castiglione clearly understood, it is not through the cheap manipulation of human emotions that we build a better society or prove our worth as individuals.  Rather it is in the way which we use such opportunities to encourage others to be and to do better, for the sake of what is good and right, rather than encouraging our audiences to act purely out of selfishness.  Would that more of us would take this advice to heart, on a regular basis, in the choices that we make, in what we write and say, and in how we interact with those who need our assistance.

Titian

Detail of “The Speech of Alfonso d’Avalos” by Titian (c. 1540)
The Prado, Madrid

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January 3, 2013 · 11:00 am

Enjoy the Silence

Returning to the routine after an extended absence is always somewhat jarring.  And as I sat in mass this morning before my first day back to what is my current level of normal, my mind was racing through the million and one things that are on my agenda, all of which need my attention.  This is one of those blood-draining-away sort of sensations, like when you see someone is about to go sailing through the intersection and just miss hitting you.  As a result it was difficult to focus on what was going on in front of me, though I was trying my best to keep my mind on where I was and what I was doing.

And then my phone rang during the Consecration.

Now, if you have ever had your phone ring during church, you know what a horrible feeling that is, but for Catholics in particular to have your phone ring during the Consecration is without a doubt the absolute worst time it could possibly happen.  Fortunately, even in such a moment there are good lessons to be learned. The first is to make sure I turn my phone completely off when entering a church, not simply mute it. The second lesson is a related one, which I want to explore a little bit, and that is the fact that sometimes you just need to turn off the world.

We are living surrounded by noise which we voluntarily bring into our lives by turning on the phone, the television, the computer, the iPod, and so on, and we forget how good it is to be silent.  It is so often that in silence, man has sat back and planned magnificent buildings, worked out complex scientific theories, or composed beautiful poetry.  He has used silence to reflect on his relationship with God and with his neighbor, and to detach himself from the world so that he can rest.  However silence is now something we avoid at any cost.

We are so constantly bombarding ourselves and others with noise, no wonder we all seem to be on such short fuses.  If you did nothing but drink caffeine all day long, you would become jittery and unable to sleep; that lack of sleep would eventually take its toll on your mental and physical health.  Yet isn’t that what we are doing by being awash in meaningless stimuli so much of the time? And what is the end result of this, what is the benefit of it?

Well, let us look at the evidence of this brave new world we have created.  For one thing, we shout at each other (or worse) through closed car windows as we break the speed limits and change lanes without signalling.  We laugh at and mock emotionally unbalanced people who choose to humiliate themselves on television for our entertainment.

We dress like beggars and prostitutes to “express” ourselves, and we will not quarter any criticism of our appearance.  It used to be said that we would call each other names on social media which we would never say in person, but sadly I think that reticence is disappearing, based on what I heard in the supermarket just the other day.  We are no longer concerned about being considered vile, crude, or ill-mannered by others, thanks to all of the messages we receive telling us that they are okay just the way we are.

Quite frankly, one of the reasons why we have seen such a rapid growth of atheism and such a correlated, rapid decline in basic public decency, is that we have forgotten how to be quiet.  For God is in the quiet, and we do not care to hear what He has to say.  All of this over-stimulation is a way of covering up that uncomfortable silence, and what we might not like to hear when we are alone with ourselves, and with Him.  So we are told to turn up the volume, put on the earbuds, and get those eyes on the screen with all of its flashing, true-to-life high-definition colors, and forget about the fact that you are mortal, and that one day you are going to die, no matter how hard you try to escape from or forget that fact.

The consequences of our embrace of noisiness are to be found in all of our endeavors, from social media and entertainment to politics and business – for there is no more joy and love, only mockery and lust.  We are no longer building beautiful buildings, or writing beautiful music, or making beautiful films.   All the signs are that our civilization is dying, and yet we roll our merry way along worrying about how many apps our cell phone has, rather than worrying why it is we have not read a serious work of literature in over a decade.

Therefore gentle reader, remember as this New Year begins that stepping away from the computer, the phone, and the television for even brief periods of time each day will be of far greater benefit to you in the long run, than avoiding finding yourself in silence, for fear of what you might hear there.  By no means am I suggesting that everything electronic is bad.  I would hardly be blogging or podcasting otherwise!  But I would suggest that you make judicious use of what has not yet been fried in your brain to step away from devices, even if only for a little window of time each day.

There are plenty of practical ways to implement this.  Turn off the television during dinner, for example, or get up a bit earlier without turning on the phone or the radio.  Shut down the computer an hour earlier than when you normally go to bed, by saying good night and meaning it.  And above all, enjoy the silence – don’t be afraid of it.

DM

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August 23, 2012 · 9:59 am

Wipe Out II: When New Media Attacks

Today I have a brief follow-up to the piece I wrote yesterday – which you can read here – about the botched restoration of a fresco of Christ at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy, in the town of Borja, Spain.  News reports indicate that the 81-year-old woman at the center of this story is now suffering from anxiety attacks, and has taken to her bed.  Friends and neighbors say they have been having difficulty persuading her to eat, because she feels so overwhelmed at the flood of media reporting on her and what she did.  In fact the Culture Minister has stated that media coverage of this incident has been completely “disproportionate.”

This level of coverage would have been impossible without new media.  It seems everyone in the commentariat has weighed in on the terrible job this woman did in “restoring” the fresco, which she claims she was doing with full permission of her parish priest, and they are able to do so because the images were shared around the world in an instant.  The hipster-atheist crowd took advantage of the opportunity to take pot-shots at God – as if they could somehow hurt Him – while others simply recoiled in horror at how the painting had been ruined.  I myself am perhaps more likely to recoil in horror at the fact that one or two of my readers said they actually preferred the new version (for if that is the case, this blog has been for naught.)

Even as late as this morning, friends who had not seen my blog post yesterday were sending me links to the original story from various new media sites in case I had missed it, not realizing that I had already weighed in on the matter.  Therefore to repeat and sum up what I wrote yesterday: the destruction of this fresco is unfortunate, but it was not a “masterpiece”, as many new media outlets have claimed.  It was a perfectly average image of Jesus, of the sort that used to be quite commonly found in churches around the world, before we started building churches that look like high school gymnasiums and drive-through banks.

I will freely admit, when I first read the story yesterday I thought, “Good gravy what a disaster.”  Yet the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was simply the case of a well-intended human being making a mistake, and this is what I tried to put across in my piece.  This woman should never have undertaken her task, since she clearly had no proper skills or training for art conservation and restoration, but does that give us free license to pile on and laugh at her for doing so?

The work done here was not completed by a professional restoration service, which holds itself out as being fit to provide this type of work.  This is not the huge academic and popular debate that went on over the cleaning of the Sistine Chapel by experts, which some hold ruined the frescoes and others hold brought them back to their original state.  Rather here we simply have a case of an elderly parishioner, who wanted to do something good for her community.

Her age and good intentions do not excuse the bad job that she did, of course.  However the reaction to her mistake is so grossly out of proportion to its significance, that it begs the question: is laughing at the mistake of a private individual worth sending them to their sick bed for?  This is not the case of a public figure like Prince Harry or Kim Kardashian behaving badly, but rather one of a private person whose life is being scrutinized and pored over by new media solely for the purpose of mockery.

In addition to which, this is fundamentally a local matter, made utterly distasteful thanks to the insidious influence of new media, which so often seems to turn off people’s sense of decency.  I will be the first to admit that sometimes, perhaps more often than I would like to admit, I am just as guilty of indulging in this sort of long-distance cruelty as anyone else.  I need to be reminded that I am commenting on actual, living human beings, not characters in a work of fiction.

For centuries, it was common practice in this country for someone who had done wrong to be placed in the stocks in the center of town. People would then be able to come by and publicly mock the person, as both a punishment and a deterrent.  This practice was later eliminated, as we came to realize that it was cruel, but cruel as it was it always a local matter for the community.

New media, it seems, is giving us the chance to revive this old form of torture, only to be able to do so from the other side of the planet with the click of a button.  In this case, we are putting an old woman none of us will ever ever meet into a kind of virtual stocks, to suffer and be humiliated for doing something wrong which has nothing whatsoever to do with any of us – and all with no consequence to ourselves.  That, to me, is a very troubling development indeed.


Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy (XVI century)
Borja, Spain

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June 18, 2012 · 10:26 am

Basking in the News Cycle

Good morning to you, gentle reader.  While you were sleeping, Greek election results came in and seem to point to a political party that will continue on the road mapped out by Brussels and Berlin, but they will still need to form a coalition to govern.  Russia is sending extra forces to its military base in Syria, ostensibly to protect Russian citizens and interests there. No one seems to have any idea about what is going on in Egypt, after yesterday’s presidential elections and quasi-coup by the military.  And Mr. Obama is  playing golf in Cabo  attending a G20 summit in Mexico.

Enjoying your Monday, yet?

The reason Monday morning news reports are often so shocking to our senses, I suspect, is the fact that so many people go into news withdrawal over the weekend, and news outlets are often happy to oblige in this regard, particularly on television. The phenomenon of the Friday news cycle, where journalists know they have to get headlines to readers before the weekend hits, means that oftentimes weekend news broadcasts are full of fluffy reports with no real value, for over 48 hours. We are presented with “news” about contradicting scientific studies claiming that milk – or fish oil or wheat germ or pop tarts – is good for you AND will give you cancer, or we have to sit through an interview with the owner of the world’s largest pet gila monster.

Meantime, the rest of the world is still going through upheaval, which does not stop simply because it is after 5:00 pm on a Friday on the East Coast of the United States. Smart people know this, of course, but it is difficult to find a news outlet in the (allegedly) mainstream American media to provide this type of information. Fortunately, for those who primarily rely on new and social media for their news headlines and reports, this kind of mush-for-brains attitude toward the American news consumer can be easily circumvented.

One way to look at world events is how London Mayor Boris Johnson does, in part, in a piece published today by The Telegraph looking at what the future holds for Greece.  Mr. Johnson treats some of the same themes I did in yesterday’s blog post, but of course does so rather better than I did. He maintains that the fallacy underlying modern thought, and which is implicit in reporting on Greece, for example, is the notion that progress is inevitable.  Additionally, he points out that “history teaches us that the tide can suddenly and inexplicably go out, and that things can lurch backwards into darkness and squalor and appalling violence.” We can already see this process well-underway in Syria, for example.

Therefore I challenge the reader to consider whether, rather than basking in the sun all weekend like the aforementioned gila monster, it might not be a good idea to do some reading – and viewing, when you can – of events that will affect you and the values which matter to you. That way, come the Monday morning headlines, you will be better-prepared to engage in discussion, debate, and, where necessary, taking action. As Mr. Johnson points out, progress is not inevitable, nor is all so-called progress desirable: let us not fall asleep at our posts merely because of an editorial decision made in New York or elsewhere to stop a news cycle.

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