“Mass media have a huge responsibility. Nowadays, they have a chance and an ability to form an opinion in their hands: they can form a good or a bad opinion”. This is what the Pope believes, as, in an interview with the Catholic weekly “Tertio”, he warns the media, defined as “builders of a society, made to build media, to inter-change, to make people make new friends, to make people think, to teach”, against some “temptations” that, from “positive”, can make them “harmful”. According to Francis, the media “can be tempted to slander, and therefore be used to slander, to sully people, and this especially in the political world. They can be used as a way to slander: everyone is entitled to a good reputation, but maybe in their past lives, in their previous lives, or ten years ago they had a problem with the law or a problem in their family life, and unearthing this now is bad, it is harmful, you can destroy someone!”. “When you slander – the Pope explains –, you tell a lie about someone; when you defame, you show a file – as we say in Argentina: ‘Se hace un carpetazo’ – and you find something that is true but that is gone now and which maybe one has already paid for by going to jail, by paying a fine, or whatever. There is no right to such thing. This is a sin, and this hurts, and something that can be very harmful in the mass media is misinformation: in other words, in any circumstance, telling just part of the truth and not the rest. This is misinforming. Because, to the people who are watching or listening to you, you give only half the truth, and so they cannot form a serious opinion”. “Misinformation is probably the most worst damage mass media can make, because they steer opinions in one direction, leaving out the rest of the truth”, warns Francis, who asks the media to “be very clear, very transparent, and not fall ill with coprophilia, which means always wanting to tell scandals, always conveying bad things even if they are true. And, since people have a tendency to fall ill with coprophagia, you can cause great damage”.