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How the media misread the pope's indulgence offer

Nearly 200 news sites reported it, nearly all got it wrong
How the media misread the pope's indulgence offer

Picture: CNN

Published: July 18, 2013 09:31 AM GMT
Updated: July 17, 2013 10:42 PM GMT

Here were the tantalizingly weird headlines: “Follow pope online, get to heaven sooner - Facebook likes don't count.” “Cut your time in purgatory by following pope on Twitter.” And, worst of all, from Slate: “Pope now offering indulgences in exchange for Twitter followers.”

Similar headlines popped up on more than 190 news sources on Wednesday.

Ha ha. Is the Catholic Church offering time off in hell– or purgatory, depending on the website - just for checking your Twitter feed every few hours? Is the church really that dumb? And here I thought Pope Francis was cool, or as Esquire recently termed him, “awesome.”

This is (another) case of how the media misunderstands and misreports a story from “The Vatican.”

Here’s how it seemed to have happened….

Full Story:Sorry, retweeting the pope won't get you out of hell 

Source:CNN Belief Blog

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