Disappointed with Catholic Media

I’m just going to come out and say it: I’m sincerely disappointed with the direction Catholic media is going in. No, not just social media but all forms of it. Print. Online. Etc. It’s like we’re losing our focus on the True, Good, and Beautiful for cheap facsimiles that lead us further away from God. 

Yes, I’m fully aware that I’m “part of the problem” as a Catholic freelance writer. But it’s that insight that I’ve had of how things work behind the scenes that have me partially disappointed. 

This is not me bashing Epic Pew, the website I write for on a regular basis. The insights I’m talking about are the stories I’ve heard and even some of the experiences I’ve had over the years in the Catholic publishing sphere. From publishers not wanting to publish or even look at book manuscripts because the writer doesn’t have “enough” followers on social media (something that I haven’t personally experienced but have heard about from good friends) to editors completely changing articles to make them more like clickbait and even pitting writers against each other as if they were in a competition to see who is “best” — it’s not the easiest field to work in. And, to top it off, we generally don’t get paid very well. This is a problem across the board — not just Catholic media — but it’s more disappointing because I always believed we were all trying to be better than that. 

It may be my own naïveté or my penchant for thinking the best of everyone to a blind, rose-colored default but I always assumed that since we were Catholic, things would be a bit better than the secular media. After all, we should be loving our neighbors as ourselves. We should be trying to be lights in this crazy world. But, sadly, we’re moving more and more far away from that. 

I’ve recently had to unsubscribe from many podcasts that I once enjoyed because of the divisive content they’ve been putting out over the last couple of months. Unfortunately, we all know that controversy generates traffic to websites and specific accounts. And that’s why some people do it; for the monetary aspect. It doesn’t seem right to me. 

Again, perhaps I’m too naive but I think that presenting truths and helping bring the Word to as many people as we can is what’s most important. That is why I think I’ll never have any success as a writer… and I’m okay with that. I want to share my journey as a Catholic on here and bring material that can help others through my articles. And, okay, sometimes I’ll be a little silly because life’s too short but still. 

I’ve already spoken a lot about social media so I’ll just add one extra thing about it; something I want to clear up:

I’m using Twitter less often because it’s where most of the infighting happens and I don’t have the mental energy for it on most days. If I don’t reply to all the messages it’s because I want to spend as little time on it. I see you and I pray for you but being logged in for more than 3 minutes at a time isn’t good for me. I don’t want my feed drenched with subtweets and uncharitable remarks. Did y’all know I had absolutely no idea about the controversy on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe because I’m not on Twitter much and I’m careful about who I follow on social media? True story. It wasn’t until I asked a friend about it that I found out. 

The less Catholic media I consume, the more authentically Catholic I feel. It feels like it should be the other way around — that the more I know the better I’ll be — but that’s not been my experience. The more I know, the heavier and wearier my heart becomes. It becomes a continuous pull away from Scripture and what Jesus taught us; a magnet that attracts everything that will pull me down rabbit holes that will waste my time and mental space that I can better dedicate to God and doing His will.

I keep remembering what Jordan Burke (who many of you know as Dan Burke’s son or “the dude who runs Do The Hard Things”) said a few weeks ago: over consumption of media — even Catholic media — is never a good thing. What does knowing every little bit of “breaking” and “latest” news add to your life? I don’t know about y’all but most of doesn’t add anything to my life whatsoever. It just fills me with knowledge that I could’ve gone my entire life not knowing and still have had a wonderful life. In fact, I’m starting to see the wisdom behind the often lambasted idiom “ignorance is bliss.” Being simple of mind and heart is not a bad thing, and I’m starting to see how my disconnection from the 24/7 news and media cycle has improved my quality of life and even my spiritual life.

And, to paraphrase Jordan again, Catholics lived hundreds of years without knowing all the latest news about Vatican scandals or even news on a more local level and they were able to survive and even thrive in their lives. Cloistered nuns and monks like my beloved brothers at Clear Creek don’t know all of what’s going on in the world yet they will undoubtedly produce some of the best saints of our generation.

I don’t need to know about the latest controversy. I don’t want to hear distorted sound bites or “news” that is presented in a sensationalist way to push a specific agenda. I want to be inspired to be a saint. I want content that will keep God at the forefront of my mind. And I want to be better at producing content that will do the same for others. Do I want to be informed of what’s happening? Sure. But I don’t need to know everything. I *don’t* have want to know. 

I’m becoming more and more selective about the media I consume. All of this started months ago but I’m really doing some major changes this Advent. There are websites like Catholic Exchange that have wonderful content that inspires me. There are certain Catholic news websites that present the facts and try to keep clickbait titles to a minimum. These are becoming increasingly rare but they exist. It’s the same with podcasts, socia media accounts, etc. I also love websites like FORMED which has solid Catholic content without the craziness. In fact, I’m saving up to get an annual subscription so I can kick some of the secular sites like Netflix and Disney+ with content that will be better for my soul. I stopped listening to the news last year so whatever I know I find out from friends or family. 

And because i (sadly) need to say this every time I post something like this: if you want to be in the know of everything that happens or look at these things differently — that’s totally your decision. I’m not shaming you for it. I’m simply talking about things from my perspective and what works and doesn’t for me. Being inundated with about 95% of what’s out there isn’t good for me. That 5% is and I’ll continue to frequent it in hopes that it’ll help my own spiritual journey. 

Anyway, just some “controversial” thoughts I’ve had bouncing around in my head for days. I needed to get them out so I can focus on more silence for this Ember week. 

I hope y’all are doing well. 

As always, thanks for reading and God bless!