Any time a public figure dies, unless he or she was notoriously evil, there is a flurry of heartwarming human interest stories about what the departed person was like, replete with anecdotes and information that was previously little known. Pope Francis is no exception, and one of the things we have learned about him was that he had a great love for music. It seems that he had a music library containing over 2,000 music CDs, ranging from Mozart, whom the pontiff particularly loved, to Elvis Presley. It’s a fine story, full of human interest and giving us a glimpse into the human warmth of the late pope, but as it happens, it’s also an object lesson in why the establishment media simply cannot be trusted.
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The story appeared Thursday in the Indonesian news site Tempo: “The leader of the Roman Catholic Church had held a deep appreciation for the arts, particularly film and music, since his childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina.” He had “a deep love for classical music,” so deep, in fact, that “his music library, housed at the Pontifical Council for Culture, contains nearly 2,000 CDs and 19 vinyl records, according to the Vatican cardinal who curated the collection.” Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, noted, “the collection includes albums by Edith Piaf, Argentine tango songs (especially those by Astor Piazzolla) and a 25-CD collection of Elvis Presley’s gospel songs.”
What a fantastic glimpse into the late pope’s personal life: he was a fan of the American pop music trailblazer and cultural symbol, Elvis himself! This claim goes back to a January 2022 Catholic News Agency (CNA) story that was published, among other places, in the Jesuit magazine America. It states essentially the same thing that Tempo reported upon the pope’s death — that Francis’ music collection included “an old album of Édith Piaf’s greatest hits; Argentine tango tunes, especially by Astor Piazzolla; and a 25-disc collection of Elvis Presley’s Gospel songs, said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.” America magazine even gave this story the title “Pope Francis’ music library contains nearly 2,000 CDs — including 25 by Elvis Presley.”
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This is great, except for one thing: There is no 25-CD collection of Elvis singing gospel music. The King of Rock and Roll recorded three gospel albums, and there is a four-CD set of Elvis singing gospel songs called “I Believe – The Gospel Masters.” It contains the material on those three gospel albums Elvis released during his lifetime, plus outtakes and such. But that’s it. There is no more Elvis gospel music. If the pope really had 25 CDs of Elvis singing gospel, at least 21 of them must have contained material that no one else had or even knew existed. Pope Francis may have had a 25-CD set of Elvis singing songs such as “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Burning Love,” but 25 CDs of Elvis gospel? There is no such animal.
Now, this might seem to be a minor quibble, but it isn’t. The news stories reporting that the pope had 25 Elvis gospel CDs are an excellent example of what novelist Michael Crichton called the “Gell-Mann amnesia effect.” Murray Gell-Mann was an American physicist who once discussed this phenomenon with Crichton. Crichton explained:
Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all.
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Related: Washington Post’s Clinging to Fake Story Reminds Us What the Media Really Is
It’s a good principle to keep in mind whenever you’re reading an establishment media story: falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. The number of Elvis’ gospel discs is a small matter, but the principle holds in that case as well as in so many others: the establishment media is simply not a reliable source for news. Not only is there the human tendency to get things wrong and to spread wrong information (as Tempo’s repetition of the false statement the CNA originally published indicates), but the establishment media is also primarily not a news source at all. It’s a propaganda arm for the hard left.
So remember, before you go searching for that 25-CD set of Elvis gospel songs: when it comes to the establishment media, trust nothing.
Elvis’ nonexistent 25 gospel CDs are another reason why you should become a PJ Media VIP member. At PJ Media, we are free of both the leftist propaganda that dominates the establishment media, and we are free of the Gell-Mann effect. Sign up today, and you’ll get full, free, unfettered, and joyful access to all of our articles, our podcasts, and everything else we offer. (Alas, Elvis’ 25 Gospel CDs aren’t included.) Get 60% off if you use the promo code FIGHT!
