April 12, 2010 - 4:46pm
"The Catholic Church has always endured unfair characterizations from the left-wing media, but the most recent and phony 'news' coverage of the sexual abuse scandal has reached a new and alarming low.
"Last week dozens of news outlets - including the Associated Press [1], Reuters [2], Washington Post [3], New York Times [4], CBS [5], MSNBC [6]- reported that the abuse scandal is 'widening.' That is absolutely and unequivocally false. The scandal isn't growing. As Catholic League President Bill Donohue aptly noted, citing evidence [7] from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, abuse is shrinking in the United States, with an even more rapid decline over the last five years.
"Any credible journalist would have done his or her research before reporting a fallacy of this magnitude. And any other religious institution that was targeted in this unconscionable fashion would have been rescued by the same liberal media that claims to be objective.
"The liberal media must immediately stop poisoning their readers and viewers with these false claims and apologize to the Catholic Church's leaders and the millions of Americans who are proud of their Catholic faith."
Recent lowlights of additional bashing of the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI includes:
- ABC, CBS and NBC featured 26 stories during Holy Week about Pope Benedict's perceived role in the sex abuse scandal the Catholic Church is now facing. Only one story focused on the measures the church has adopted in recent years to prevent abuse. In 69 percent of the stories (18 out of 26) reporters used language that presumed the pope's guilt [8].
- CBS going after the Church on Easter Sunday morning [9]
- The Washington Post sought out Pope-hating Sinead O'Connor to trash Pope Benedict [10]
- CNN's Jack Cafferty devoted segments [11] to attacking Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church in one third (4 in 12) of the Situation Room broadcasts around Easter time.
- CBS - Early Show treated the Holy Father like a corrupt politician [12]