UNITED STATES
NewsHounds
Fox “News” does love culture war wedge issues which they can spin into “controversies” and “outrages” that are used to further divide the world into their dualistic world view of good vs. evil. Fox has designated the management of the Empire State Building as part of the evil forces (could it be Satan?) that are continuously fighting against the forces of good. The “outrage” is their refusal to light up their building to honor NY’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Head of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, whose claim to speak for Catholics is dubious, says Catholics are angry. Never wanting to waste an opportunity to pander to victimized Christians, Fox News (Dolan’s personal network) is running with the outrage meme. Last Friday, Megyn Kelly and Donahue got a tad apopletic over this issue. And on Saturday’s news block, this topic was part of Heather Childers’ women’s panel. But when Childers tossed to Greg Jarrett, all semblance of journalistic objectivity flew out the window with an amazingly idiotic quote from Jarrett.
Childers’ panel, a regular feature on Saturday afternoons, is a decent piece of TV journalism as there is always at least one non right wing partisan in the group. The discussions cover a variety of topics. Jehmu Greene and Sally Kohn had no problem with the Empire State decision, as, they say, it is a private business. Andrea Tantaros disagreed. Nothing surprising here. But when Childers tossed over to Jarrett, he whined about how this is a lousy decision because “everybody,” not just Catholics and New Yorkers, “loves Cardinal Dolan.” Really?
First of all, the issue doesn’t seem to be resonating beyond the pale of Fox News and Donahue’s “Catholic League.” I daresay that your average American probably doesn’t even know who Dolan is. I also daresay that many Catholics probably don’t even know who their own bishop is. But it is apparent that there are some who actually don’t like Dolan. The pro-choice community is aware that he is a point person in the resistance to the HHS contraception mandate and they aren’t too pleased about what is considered another assault on women’s reproductive rights by the Catholic Church. And David Clohessy, the executive director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said, about Dolan, that “He’s charming and affable but as bad or worse than most bishops when it comes to clergy sex crimes and coverups.” Clohessy’s group accuse Dolan of being “deceitful and secret” in allowing an accused sexually abusive priest to resign rather than deal with the problem.
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