MediaWatch: April 1996

Janet Cooke Award: "Reform-Minded Catholics...Blacklisted"

In the sophisticated ambiance of TV newsrooms, freedom of association is a concept apparently as outmoded as traditional religion. The notion that in America, a church is a voluntary association, bound together by commonly held theological beliefs, is a strange and alien argument. For holding up a Catholic bishop as a symbol of "extremism" enforcing a "blacklist," CBS and NBC earned the Janet Cooke Award.

On the March 25 CBS Evening News, Dan Rather began: "In Lincoln, Nebraska, a bishop is taking the Catholic Church's battle over personal morality a step further. He is threatening to excommunicate any parishioner who joins groups advocating positions the church opposes. That threat puts this bishop in the forefront of a national furor, as we hear from Scott Pelley."

Pelley began: "Critics call him an extremist, a danger to the Catholic Church. What has thrust national notoriety upon Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz is a list, his own blacklist of organizations, he says, threaten the mortal soul...Bruskewitz has decreed that parishioners in his diocese of southern Nebraska have seven weeks to resign memberships in the listed groups, or be excommunicated, severing, the bishop says, their relationship with God."

He added: "The list includes pro-choice Planned Parenthood and the Hemlock Society, which advocates a right to die. But it also includes some organizations that consider themselves to be Catholic, even though they stray from Vatican teaching. One of them, known as Call to Action, advocates the ordination of women."

Call to Action's Robert McClory claimed: "The organization was founded to promote dialogue on issues, about which Catholics are seriously divided. He would prefer, evidently, that there be no discussion, and he's ordered those people, who think so, to simply get out of his house." Pelley noted: "The Bruskewitz list may be unique in America. Bishops rule their own diocese; parishioners are welcome to appeal to the Pope. Randall Moody faces excommunication. He is a parishioner and a member of Planned Parenthood's [national] board of directors." Moody oozed: "The organizations affected by this excommunication order are mainstream America, and it paints the church into the corner of being an extremist organization."

Pelley allowed Bruskewitz to speak: "These groups mislead people into thinking that they're compatible with the Catholic religion when they're not....It's not a question of not wanting to discuss issues. It's a question of an organization, which is, by its very constitution, inimical to the Catholic faith, which is destructive of church discipline."

Pelley ended: "The controversy is an example of tension in the American church, with a conservative Vatican on one side and reform-minded Catholics on the other. Now in Nebraska, there is a deadline for those who must decide whether they live their conscience or keep their faith."

NBC Nightly News had a similar take on April 1. While the on-screen graphic read "Blacklisted," Tom Brokaw pronounced: "A controversy is splitting apart a church as it prepares to enter its holiest week. At issue: A threat by a Catholic bishop in Nebraska to expel members from the church, for reasons his critics say belong in another era. Here's NBC's Linda Vester."

Vester began: "Last night in Lincoln, more than 60 Catholics gathered to figure out how to avoid being kicked out of their church...They're angry with the bishop of Lincoln for threatening them with the ultimate punishment: excommunication. Their crime: belonging to any of twelve groups the bishop has blacklisted, including Planned Parenthood, the Freemasons, and Call to Action, a nationwide organization that advocates women priests, married priests, and birth control."

Bruskewitz said: "Membership in these organizations that are listed certainly imperils the Catholic faith." Vester countered: "But a blanket order of excommunication, for any reason, is rare, unheard of in modern times. Some members of Call to Action, like Rosalyn Carr, are afraid and are quitting the group." Carr charged: "Well, I think the bishop has ways to retaliate."

Vester added: "But at Call to Action's meeting last night, others were defiant. Those who defy the bishop's order will be excommunicated May 15, which means they can attend mass, but they can't take communion or get married in the church. The bishop says he won't enforce the order; he expects people to police themselves....But the bishop is getting help. The pro-life group, Rescue America, is going to give him members' names from the local Planned Parenthood."

Vester asked: "Is it a witch hunt? One theologian thinks it may turn people away from a church already struggling with its image." Father Richard McBride of the University of Notre Dame exclaimed: "It reinforces the prejudice that a lot of people have that it really is a new, a modern form of authoritarianism."

Vester wrapped it up: "Despite what critics say, Bishop Bruskewitz insists his order stands." Bruskewitz said: "Oh, I have no intentions of waffling." Vester's conclusion was almost identical to Pelley's: "Which leaves some Catholics here feeling forced to choose between their conscience and their church." When contacted by MediaWatch, both reporters were said to be on assignment. Despite numerous calls and faxes, neither responded.

William Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, told MediaWatch the networks are guilty of "rank hypocrisy" in their coverage of freedom of association: "The American Civil Liberties Union has a policy that every officer is pro-choice. If an officer were to evolve into a pro-life position, he would become a pariah, like Nat Hentoff, who was thrown off the board of directors. That's their prerogative. But where's the charge of authoritarianism?"

Donohue said the same is true for reporters: "I asked a newspaper reporter: what if one of your colleagues went on the local TV station and denounced your newspaper? If a secular organization won't tolerate that kind of insubordination, why is the Church held to a different standard?" This is especially pertinent in the case of CBS News after reporter Bernard Goldberg was kept off the air for months after he denounced the liberal bias of his own network. A CBS statement said Rather "disagrees with Mr. Goldberg's opinion...and its expression."

Perhaps the networks' blind spot is unique to religion, where they imply that dissent is noble and church doctrine autocratic, that theology is subject to a vote and salvation is accomplished by focus group. CBS and NBC had three possible ways to present its story: Bruskewitz as hero for standing up for tradition, Bruskewitz as author-itarian villain, or a balanced presentation of both views. Instead of pursuing the professional third option, they opted for the bishop as villain.

Featured Posts

Bozell Slams Hillary’s Shills in Media: ‘They Are Covering for’ Her

Get the Latest News From CNSNews

Get the Latest Media Analysis on NewsBusters