Rolling Stone, that arbiter of popular culture, has granted its imprimatur to Pope Francis. It will feature the 77-year-pontiff on the cover of the issue that hits newsstands Friday. Touche! Or as Pope Francis might say, “far out.”
In ditching chauffeured limo for battered Ford Focus and Vatican palace for humble guesthouse, Pope Francis has cemented his man of the people bona fides. His empathy for the poor and diseased is unparalleled. One cannot even remotely imagine his predecessor, courtly red-shoe wearing Pope Benedict, hugging the deformed as Pope Francis routinely does.
Rather than bemoan financial pressures on the “poor” church, the Jesuit advocates a church for the poor, putting him well ahead of the current trendy media and political cry of “income inequality.” [That inequality theme is one that President Obama will flog during his State of the Union address later today.]
The liberation theology advocate has revitalized the Catholic Church here, liberating it from the stifling leadership from bishops obsessed with fighting the so-called wars surrounding sexual orientation and female reproductive organs.
While Francis remains true to the Church’s ban on abortion and male-only priests (so far), his simple “Who am I to judge?” declaration made to Italy’s Jesuit magazine about gay priests spoke volumes about his support of human rights for all of God’s children.
Rolling Stone cover’s slugs Pope Francis picture with Bob Dylan’s “"The Times, They Are A-Changin'" mantra.
Blessedly they are. Pope Francis is changing the attitude of the Catholic Church for the better.
A friend suggested that we should advance the Jewish wish for a life of 100 years to Francis.
Let’s pray for a Rolling Stone cover encore performance for Pope Francis in 2037. It takes a while to change a 2000-plus year old institution.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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