MRC President Brent Bozell sent the following letter to Huffington Post President Arianna Huffington on Wednesday, February 29, 2012:
Ms. Arianna Huffington
President and Editor-in-Chief
Huffington Post Media Group
Dear Ms. Huffington,
When you started The Huffington Post in 2005, you opened your new Internet
venture with a pledge, as quoted by Newsweek: “If you’re looking for the usual flame-
throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog rhetoric....don’t bother coming to The
Huffington Post.” But Larry Doyle’s recent anti-Catholic screed in the Huffington Post,
The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum [1], is bigoted and unacceptable, and a perfect
example of “flame-throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog rhetoric.” His
column should be taken off your site, and you should issue an apology for ever
publishing such trash.
As we stated in February of 2011, (“AOL News Has Lost Its Mind with HuffPo
Buyout [2]”), AOL was foolish to buy The Huffington Post, presuming that it would be
anything less than a “hate-filled, vicious, radically left-wing rag.” Doyle’s column is the
latest in a long line of such content.
In answer to online reader outrage over his distasteful column, Doyle responds
that it was all a joke. Intelligent readers and the millions of faithful Catholics who come
into contact with this piece don’t buy such equivocating nonsense for a minute. Bigots
like Doyle think they can hurl the most contemptible insults towards Catholics ("Jesus
eaters") and when called out, claim it was just a joke. What cowardice. What a double
standard. If such an article was written concerning the Islamic or Jewish faith, the public
outcry would be overwhelming, and rightly so. But anti-Catholicism is the last
acceptable form of bigotry, and The Huffington Post is taking advantage of that bigotry
for all it’s worth.
The Obama administration’s recent mandate forcing religious institutions to
provide insurance which violates their most sacred teachings is the outgrowth of a media,
including The Huffington Post, complicit in the persecution of religion. Timothy
Cardinal Dolan has called this mandate an unprecedented attack on conscience.
You should be covering such attacks on religion in this country, not fomenting
more persecution and bigotry.
The double standard is clear for all to see. Media outlets like The Huffington Post
are ignoring the attack on the religion, but promoting bigots like Doyle who despise
Catholics and others who practice traditional Judeo Christian faiths. That makes you
complicit in bigotry.
Withdraw Doyle’s piece from your site and issue an apology to all the millions of
faithful Catholics you have deliberately offended in publishing this piece. If you choose
not to, then your so called news outlet cannot be seen as anything but an anti-Catholic
talking piece.
Sincerely,
L. Brent Bozell III
Founder and President
Media Research Center
Brian Brown
President
National Organization for Marriage
Brian Burch
President
Catholic Vote
Marjorie Dannenfelser
President
Susan B. Anthony List
Richard Viguerie
Chairman
ConservativeHQ.com
Tony Perkins
President
Family Research Council