Just this morning I was lamenting with friends the complete loss of truthful, unbiased news reporting. In place of practicing journalism, mainstream media unabashedly seeks to leverage their power position to gain political and social goals.
A frequent thorn in their side is the Catholic Church. Sometimes I feel like we have absolutely no voice in society, but when I consider the unceasing, slanderous statements made against us – maybe truth does threaten the media. People of good will should look critically at media bias. They make little effort to hide it any longer.
The Catholic League regularly reports on the duplicity of the media. Yesterday was typical… they reported on two very frequent offenders — The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on editorials that appear today in the New York Times and Washington Post:
Both of these newspapers misstate the facts, fail to mention relevant data, and then make unfair accusations against the Catholic Church on the issue of sexual abuse.
Both newspapers today editorialize on the subject of “pedophile priests.” It is one of the biggest myths of our time that the Catholic Church has had a problem with pedophile priests: as the John Jay College for Criminal Justice showed in its 2011 report on this subject, less than 5 percent of the abusers were pedophiles. In almost all cases, the victims were adolescent males who were inappropriately touched by homosexual priests. Both newspapers cover this up, thus perpetuating a lie.
Today’s New York Times criticizes Timothy Cardinal Dolan for opposing legislation by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey which would lift the statute of limitations for one year on civil lawsuits involving the sexual abuse of a minor. Once again, we have a cover-up: what the editorial does not say is that this bill does not apply to the public schools.
Today’s Washington Post adds to the cover-up by pretending that the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is a legitimate organization that is being harassed by the Church. But anyone who has read the report we issued last year on inside information that was obtained from a SNAP conference knows that it is driven by raw hatred of Catholicism and intentionally manipulates the media. Also, the deposition from earlier this year of SNAP’s leader shows beyond a doubt that he lies to the media, and that he counsels alleged victims without a license in a coffee house.
Moreover, 85 Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn have recently been arrested for the sexual abuse of minors and yet neither newspaper reports on this.
Nothing unusual. The same stuff every day. If you keep repeating lies again and again, do people eventually believe you?
Another good example is media sensitivity to outrageous statements. Remember the Georgetown University student who could not afford contraception? Her apparent sexual activity level is so high (based upon her staggering contraceptive bill) that Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut.” I don’t like Rush Limbaugh and it was offensive for him to call her that. However, it was her choice to publicly testify to her high level of sexual “protection” needs. His comment did not seem like a big deal to me. The liberal media went wild.
OK. Clearly the media is sensitive to name calling. You would think then that they would report on and vigorously condemn another (liberal in this case) radio talk show host who referred to Christ’s Church and his Vicar as “you child-raping sons of bitches in the Catholic Church, I am so sick of all of you – especially your priests and your bishops and your scum, the Nazi Pope.” Absolute silence. No outrage. No condemnations.
NewsBusters (tagline: exposing & combating liberal media bias) did cover it:
Liberal radio hosts were furious with the Catholic League for mocking Hillary Rosen after she attacked Ann Romney for not working. Their tweet said “Unlike Rosen, who had to adopt kids, Ann raised 5 of her own.” This was seen by liberals as signaling Rosen’s children adopted with former partner Elizabeth Birch were “less valid, less worthy of respect” and homophobic.
On Friday, Bill Press confused the Catholic League with the nation’s bishops (they are not connected), but on Thursday, rabid atheist Mike Malloy was nudged into erupting about “child-raping” Catholics and their scummy “Nazi pope”:
MALLOY: And the Catholic League – that piece of human waste Bill Donohue – then twitted or tweeted or tweaked – ‘glad to know Hilary’s fans are in a state of apoplexy – you’d think she was outed by their hysterical reaction. Get over it and grow up! You child-raping sons of bitches in the Catholic Church, I am so sick of all of you – especially your priests and your bishops and your scum, the Nazi Pope, I am so sick of all of you. And this Donohue freak — wow.
He then circled around to attacking Mrs. Romney:
MALLOY: She has never worked a damn day in her life. She has not a clue. When’s the last time Ann Romney cleaned a toilet? When’s the last time Ann Romney had to catch a bus at four o’clock in the morning and make uh two or three transfers so she could go clean somebody else’s goddamn house? When’s the last time Ann Romney went to work as, uh, some chump bastard’s secretary taking all – excuse me – administrative assistant – taking all the flak, knowing that the job was only as secure as the creep she worked for”
Ann Romney, you’re a multi-millionaire you’re net worth is almost a half a billion dollars! Don’t try to compare or find equivalence between you and working mothers! There is none and you know it! And so does your funky husband! And so does every single disgusting right-wing cockroach in this country who just couldn’t wait to come screwing up over the slime and jump on this one! And isn’t it nice that the first thing that the fascist Bill Donohue Catholic Nazi goes for is Hilary Rosen’s sexual orientation ya filthy pig! Have I mentioned yet tonight how MUCH I hate these right-wingers”
Tim Graham’s entire piece is: Liberal Radio Hosts Rant at Catholic League, Scummy ‘Nazi Pope’.
Again, nothing unusual. This blatant bias is now an every day thing. Expect things to actually worsen in this election year. For example, see this simple example from Elizabeth Scalia.
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