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Pope Uses Disgusting Picture to Frame Media Mudslinging as 'Sin'

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Pope Francis is not shying away from calling out the media's focus on scandals, fake news and politician smearing. 

And the pontiff is using strong language to describe the practice, comparing it to a fascination with excrement, according to Reuters

"I think the media have to be very clear, very transparent, and not fall into no offense intended the sickness of coprophilia, that is, always wanting to cover scandals, covering nasty things, even if they are true," he said. "And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, a lot of damage can be done."

Coprophilia is a psychological term used to describe a perverted interest in excrement. Pope Francis used the term to describe the media's work of dishing out scandal, defamation, and slander. 

He described the consumer's fascination with this content as coprophagia, or eating excrement.

The Pope told the Belgian Catholic weekly publication Tertio that spreading the wrong information is "probably the greatest damage that the media can do."

The interview, translated from Spanish to Italian, includes some of the bluntest language the pontiff has used in the media.  

He excused himself for using those words to communicate that the media's practice is not only deplorable but even sinful. 

"The means of communication have their own temptations, they can be tempted by slander, and therefore used to slander people, to smear them, this above all in the world of politics," he said. "They can be used as means of defamation."

"No one has a right to do this. It is a sin and it is hurtful," he said.

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