The Times front page of November 1 carries a picture billing the Pope as a protector of paedophile priests.

The colour photograph directs the reader to a crude, inside news story (page 15) which includes the unchallenged quote that “somewhere” – right now – “a missionary is having his way with a child, taking his body for pleasure and robbing his soul, and nothing will be done to stop the perpetrator”.

Facing this page, The Times carries another news story about a number of Catholics who have been killed while attending Sunday Mass in a Baghdad church. But this story and its accompanying picture are well sanitised so as not to offend readers with the colour of Catholic blood and tales of Christian suffering.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? About journalism and ethics, I mean. Or does it!?

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