Headline on the Fox Nation title page right now (scroll down):*
Is the Media Out to Get the Pope?
We knew Murdoch's message board was on the wrong side of every conceivable issue in the realm of politics, but I suppose there was reason to hope that it would take the right stand on something -- killing puupies? speeding in school zones? I suupose that's still possible, but this headline demonstrates that the toxicity at Fox Nation extends to issues far beyond Washington.
The title-page link goes here, where we're sent to a Newsmax story headlined, "Vatican Goes on Defensive as Media Stoke Reports of Abuse." That "Stokes" notwithstanding, please note that the Fox Nation headline is even more of a condemnation of news organizations attempting to uncover the truth about pedophilia cover-ups in the Catholic Church.
As for the story itself, it's largely given over to the fulminations of the Catholic League's Bill Donohue -- whose defense of the indefensible Church response to the incidents currently being report needs to be kept in mind by every TV booker who thinks of Donohue as within the community of decent citizens. His works mark him as a moral monster:
... The [New York] Times reported [Friday] that Ratzinger had received a copy of a memo to inform him that [a] priest had undergone therapy for pedophilia and would return to pastoral duties. The priest, the Rev. Peter Hullermann, was convicted later of molesting boys in another diocese.
The New York Times story, which added to a flurry of reports in recent weeks of abuse in Ireland, Germany, Italy and the United States, prompted a heated condemnation from Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights....
"Let's say Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, now the Pope, did in fact learn of the transfer," Donohue says in a statement on his organization's Web site. "So what? Wasn't that what he expected to happen?
"A more hard-line approach, obviously, makes more sense, but the therapeutic industry is very powerful," Donohue says. "In other words, there is no real news in today's news story. So why print it? To keep the flame alive.
"Look for the Times to run another story saying they have proof Ratzinger knew of the transfer," Donohue says. "Did they think that after he approved the therapy that Hullermann would be sent to the gulag?" ...
Er, no -- just to prison, or at the very least to duties which wouldn't put him in contact with boys.
If you can bear more of this, go to the Newsmax link, where Donohue essentially says what the Catholic Church did was OK because (a) laws and mores regarding pedophilia were different in the past and (b) hey, other churches and institutions have pedophilia scandals, too!
How nice of you to provide your media megaphone for this toxic propaganda, Rupert.
The Times story in question is here.
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*UPDATE, MONDAY: It's no longer on the title page, but you can still see it via the Google cache.
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