The Devolution of a Mater Dei Apologist, Gustavo Arellano, Orange County Weekly, February 9, 2009

The Devolution of a Mater Dei Apologist

By Gustavo Arellano
Orange County Weekly
February 9, 2009

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/ex-cathedra/the-devolution-of-a-mater-dei/

Until we upgrade our blog, many of ustedes might not know about the many fights raging on blog posts of the past--the old posts that seem to get the most attention include those on local Armenian genocide denier Ergun Kirlikovali, Laotian Secret Army general Vang Pao, and my review of Lola Gaspar. But the funniest such fight by far has to do with Mater Dei High grad Nick Manning.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post urging Servite High students to drop the racist chants during boys' basketball games against the Monarchs and ridicule their eternal rival's numerous teen-rapist cover-ups. Manning quickly accused the Weekly of being anti-Catholic just because we dare write in disgusting truth about how the Orange diocese covered up the rapes of innocents for decades. "Feel free to post your reply Gustavo or email me if you like," Manning wrote. "Either way I figure your [sic] going to justify your biased reporting and call me a bunch of names like you do with anyone who disagrees with you."

A quiz: of Manning and I, who refrained from name-calling, and who made baseless accusations while telling the other to "put on some big girl panties," calling them a "big baby," a "drama queen," a "self loathing poor excuse of man," a "journalist douche-bag," and throwing in an anti-Mexican slur? And was a troll, to boot? The full, wonderful devolution of a Mater Dei apologist after the jump! Warning: it's long but worth the read...

All the original comments are here; I will only excerpt the interactions between Manning and I, starting with Nick:

Gustavo, John Manly and all Catholic Haters,

Not only will I sign my real name I also provided my real email address to the OC Weekly. Let me start.

There is a HUGE section of "escorts" and "Massage" parlors who advertise in mass in the OC Weekly in the back pages. For Gustavo to pretend that it is not a huge source of revenue for his employer is laughable. And for Gustavo to pretend that these Erotic Service providers are not fronts for prostitution is even more laughable.

I don't know if you're a lapsed Catholic or you get off going after Mater Dei. I attended the school I am also sending my children there as well. In fact over 20 members of my family have attended or are attending MD. None of them have been molested or violated and the graduates are honorable members of society. We ALL deplored the evil deeds of Andrade but would you have us do? Pull our children out of MD? That's like cutting of your nose to spite your face! There are THOUSANDS of students who's lives have been affected positively by the HUNDREDS of amazing teachers who do work at MD. How you get off continuing to slam MD after almost a decade is unbelievable.

I think it is unconscionable for you to advocate making sexual chants against minors. Servite students made racist chants towards MD black players. YOU NEVER WROTE ABOUT IT, all you do is slam MD at ever turn and your avoidance of this incident leads me to believe that you condone racism. Your blind hate and anti-catholic slant is blatant and quite disappointing. What ever happened to being a journalist with integrity? Why cant you being fair and write without injecting your personal feelings?

Feel free to post your reply Gustavo or email me if you like. Either way I figure your going to justify your biased reporting and call me a bunch of names like you do with anyone who disagrees with you.

Nick

(Gustavo note: John Manly is the lawyer who savaged the Orange diocese to the tune of millions of dollars in civil damages and thousands of pages of once-secret documents that showed how diocesan officials protected pedophile priests; he wasn't mentioned in this post until Manning brought him up. Also, the bit about sex ads was brought up by a previous writer named "Truth," who will become important at the end of this tale)

My response:

Nick: And how would you know that we have hooker ads in our paper? All I see are the same escort and massage ads printed by the Orange County Register, albeit with more pictures. And it's not a HUGE section, as you state, but two pages--roughly the same amount run by the Register. We get more money from music clubs. You can look it up.

Did you even read my post? I called the Servite kids' actions "horrible" and told them to lay off the players and go after adults. How is that not writing about the situation?

Did you read my seventh comment on here? The people who allowed Andrade to run rampant, Pat Murphy and Gary McKnight, are still working at Mater Dei. Have you or any of your clan asked diocesan officials to fire them? If not, why not? Have you ever talked to a victim? Have you ever done anything else other than feel the whole situation is "deplorable"? If not, why not? And how is pointing out the facts "anti-Catholic"? Care to point out where I've lied, and not been fair to the story?

Now Manning:

The news media reports that the massage parlors and escorts that your newspaper support are nothing but fronts for prostitution and child slavery. And I wouldn't be proud of comparing your rag to the OC Register. And you did advocate that the Servite students "go after adults" and make chants about the Sex scandal. That is the most irresponsible thing I've ever seen advocated in print. We as a family have taken MD to task and voiced our displeasure over the Andrade situation and are not proud of how it was handled in general. And for the record one of the victims in the case is a friend and did not deserve what happened to them. But the victim knows that there are THOUSANDS of students and HUNDREDS of teachers who have been help by Mater Dei. You only focus your rage at MD and it's supporters by calling us all pedophiles. Don't even pretend to deny it, I've read your slanted joke of a column for years and have seen it get progressively worse and worse. For Pete's sake your blogging about a event at a basketball game! Get a new obsession or at least try to be fair and impartial when you slam Mater Dei.

Me:

Where have I called Mater Dei supporters "pedophiles"? That's the most laughable charge anyone has brought to me. You folks are pedophile APOLOGISTS, not pedophiles. You made a charge: now, prove it. If you can't, you owe me an apology.

And spare me your weeping violins about how Mater Dei has done so much good to so many. What did Jesus say about what people do to the least of humanity?

Also:

Now that I think of it, you still haven't answered my challenge to you about showing where I've lied in my articles. McKnight tried pulling that shit on me through a lawyer, and he lost. Bad. Also, in your "displeasure," have you asked for McKnight's resignation? If not, why not? You yourself said you "was a catilist to change the way things are handled." Did you go after the man most responsible for Andrade? I asked you this before, and I'm asking again. If you don't answer this question in your next comment, your future comments WILL be deleted. Put up or shut up.

Nick with the money shot!

"If you don't answer this question in your next comment, your future comments WILL be deleted. "

Well if it isn't the journalist who threatens censorship? So if someone disagrees and calls your integrity to question they need to answer to you? I don't need to show you anything you big baby just as much as you don't need to respond to me you drama queen. I am entitled to my opinions, this American not Mexico.

Tell you what Gustavo, put on some big girl panties and STFU. No one put a gun to your head and told you to become a public figure. If I want to say "In my opinion you are a self loathing poor excuse of man." I can do so since it is my opinion. And there is NOTHING you can do about it. Of course you can delete the comment if your poor little feelings get hurt. You've said much worse about other people with little or no justification.

(Gustavo note: As faithful readers well know, we don't censor comments here unless they're libelous. We do, however, start deleting comments when a reader cannot respond to simple questions)

My final points:

Folks: Let the record show that Nick Manning was challenged twice but couldn't put up the facts. That, as we all know, is the hallmark of a coward. Good luck with God, Nick! And, given your foul mouth and stupidity, I'm more than happy to leave your comment up for perpetuity!

And:

And Nick: I'd rather be a journalistic douche-bag than a coward like you who throws accusations without being able to back them up. Someone's swinging a small stick there, eh?

Here's the best part: in this post were also comments left by "Truth" and a guy calling himself Niko, who wrote today, "Looks like Nick got under you skin huh? LOL!" Guess what? Truth, Niko, and Manning all have the same IP address (Manning also posted under his name at another IP address)! Either Nick is one and the same, or South Coast Auto Plaza sure has a lot of former Monarchs!

E-mail: GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM