MSM characterization of Benedict's visit to Brazil

Five days before the Pope's visit to Brazil the mainstream media has decided (I think) how they are going to approach their coverage of his trip.

Simply put, Benedict is visiting Brazil, they will say, to prevent evangelical Protestantism from taking over the Roman Catholic Church there.

Fundamentally accurate, only partially true or hardly relevant, you can bet you'll be hearing variations of this in every report that gets filed during the pope's journey.

As an example, here's the opening line from the UK Telegraph: "Pope Benedict XVI will fly to Brazil next week to try to shore up flagging support for the Roman Catholic Church against a wave of evangelical Protestantism."

... rinse and repeat.

Update: Patrick of Creative Minority Report satirizes this approach with brilliant results:

"Pope's Last Ditch Effort Cancelled"

Dateline Next Week — Sao Paolo Brazil.

When Pope Benedict XVI arrived in this sprawling city Wednesday for a five-day visit to the world's formerly most populous Roman Catholic country, he found that there were actually no Catholics left in Brazil.

It appears that the last remaining Catholics in the country converted to Pentecostalism during the Pontiff’s 11 hour flight.

The Pope’s entire visit had been planned as a last ditch effort aimed at keeping the last few remaining Catholics in Brazil from converting.

[Read the rest here].

Good. It's not just me seeing this kind of stuff in almost every article I read.