BishopAccountability.org
	When Pope Is Ashamed, It's News By C.B. Hanif Palm Beach Post April 20, 2008 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/04/20/a2e_lpcol_0420.html Post readers never lack interesting observations on the paper's news and feature offerings. Let's get right to some of them. " 'Deeply ashamed' of abuses," Wednesday's headline regarding Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the U.S., "is crazy," said Thomas Sullivan of Boynton Beach. "That headline casts a pointless pall over the pope, his visit to America and the Catholic Church. The church had 4 percent of its priests during a 50-year time period accused of child-molesting," Mr. Sullivan said. "It was a shameful time which everyone deplores. Why did The Post use that headline for this historic visit? You fabricated an opportunity to run a negative headline about the Catholic Church. "Contrast the pope's headline," he added, "with another of today's headlines - 'SHE PREACHES PEACE' - about the Episcopal presiding bishop visiting South Florida. Since The Post heavily and favorably covers gay activities and causes, you gave this bishop an all-caps headline and a nice puff-piece story. The pope preaches peace, too, but for some reason, that's not good enough for his headline. The Post should be deeply ashamed of such obvious bias, and besmirching the pope's visit to America." In another example of how the staff's perspectives may provide insight for readers other than those who raised an issue, Managing Editor Bill Rose said: "Fabricated? The pope spoke to this issue himself, addressing a crowd of reporters. He and the Vatican deal with the press all the time. He knew what he was saying and what he was doing and he clearly wanted to send a message. When the pope says publicly that he is 'deeply ashamed' of something that has happened in the church, that is pretty important news. The headline simply reflected what happened. "This pope has addressed the issue of clergy sexual abuse more forcefully than his predecessor," Mr. Rose said. "That's news, too. He spoke extensively on the subject on a day in which he had no speeches or official statements planned, so he knew it would 'make news.' And it did. The pope considered it so important that he addressed it again in public on Thursday. "As for the 'SHE PREACHES PEACE' headline (on the Local News front) about the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church: Obviously, she didn't discuss clergy sex abuse, and she wasn't coming here for the first time since a big sex scandal broke. We have written many stories over the years stressing the pope's work for peace. This time, though, he spoke to the issue of sexual abuse by priests." # Speaking for numerous other readers who called or wrote was Dian Vujovich: "Although it's typically not appropriate to name-call, sometimes it fits the bill. In this case, who are the knuckleheads who decided to take the Business section out of the Sunday newspaper? I understand that times are tough," said the West Palm Beach reader, "but business is the backbone of our community and our lives. There is plenty about it to report on locally, statewide and nationally. Please put the section back and make cuts elsewhere or your move to save money could just cost you readership." "We took Business out of the paper on Sundays to trim some of our expenses," said Post Editor John Bartosek. "Newsprint, the actual sheets of paper you're holding, is one of our highest expenses, and the cost is rising. We know most readers have a favorite section or feature, and we know that no matter what we trim, some readers will be disappointed. "We kept the most popular features from Sunday Business and moved them to other days of the week," he said. "Alexandra Clough's column about business and law moves to the front page of Monday's Inside Local Business section. The financial advice columns by Liz Pulliam Weston and Charles A. Jaffe also appear on Monday now. The Personal Technology page moves to Tuesday, and the International Business page moves to Friday. "We also beefed up our Sunday Business coverage online with a new magazine called The Conversation, at PalmBeachPost.com/theconversation. It includes a second column by Ms. Clough called The Source, a new personal finance column for young adults by Eve Samples called Fresh Green, and various features off the week's news. And more content will be added in coming weeks. It's true that more readers than ever want their news online, and we want to continue to serve them there as well." # Readers may have noticed several Internet addresses cited at the end of the April 12 lead editorial ("With a political 'surge,' Bush ducks hard choice"). I asked Editorial Page Editor Randy Schultz to comment about that. "Across the country, we are hearing that online readers especially enjoy getting as many views as possible on major issues," said Mr. Schultz. "Iraq is obviously a major issue. We don't presume to tell readers what other perspectives they should seek out. But this time, we wanted to offer some suggestions. One site presented an upbeat assessment of conditions in Iraq. Another examined the cost of the war. And another tried to envision what Iraq might look like in 2012. So, there was a range of views. "You can't do this on every editorial, of course. When there's enough other material, though, we will try to do so."
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