Emotive Language
Reading MSM reports on the Pope is often interesting and funny to some extent in their all-out bias. Here is a common case in point with the headline "Pope slams gay marriage before vote." It starts with:
Pope Benedict, speaking just 10 days ahead of Italy's national elections, lashed out against gay marriage and abortion on Thursday and said the Church had the right to speak out on thorny political issues.
So we have this big build up of "slam" and "lashed out" and so we should be prepared for the extreme verbal assault by the Holy Father.
He said the Church had a right and duty to defend "the recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage".
It would oppose "attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilisation", he added.
This being a Reuters story let us see how this lines up with their editorial policy.
We are committed to reporting the facts and in all situations avoid the use of emotive terms. The only exception is when we are quoting someone directly or in indirect speech.
I sent Reuters some feedback using their submission form asking if they though the article met their editorial guidelines. Frankly I am tired of the number of headlines that use slam and attack by almost all news organizations. Google reports 1,410 hits on the exact keywords of "pope slams" and another 703 on "Pope attacks." Though it always good to remember that the student is not greater than the master and that if they would persecute Christ that the same thing happening to the Pope and all christians is not exactly headline news but a confirmation.
I like Jimmy Akins term for these stories. He calls them a newsitorial.
Known as 
Imagine: 31 A.D. newspaper
Jesus slams Pharisees!
In today's lead story on the upcoming rabbi, Jesus the Nazarene, one of his more vocal disciples, James, lashes out at a village, threatening to call down fire from heaven. Jerusalem Times reports...
I don't think the Pope "slams" anything, nor does he "lash out". I think he'd sooner give you a blessing.
I'm with Mia. I found the "lashed out" phrase thoroughly incongurent with his character.
Fr. Neuhaus once recalled an incident when he, then Cardinal Ratzinger, was invited to speak in the U.S. (New York, I believe). When he stood to speak, he was met with screaming vulgarity by Act Up folks. He stood quietly without expression. When there was a lull, he quietly said something to the effect, "You have had your say. Now it is my turn to speak."
If he didn't "lash out" on an occasion where he was an invited guest, deplorably treated, I'm thinking he likely did not here either.
My general theory of reading the news is quite simple: If I can't tell the difference between the news page and the op/ed page, I put the paper down and walk away. It's safe to say I don't read all that many papers.