NPR’S DOUBLE STANDARD

Recently NPR made headlines after it fired Juan Williams after he made an allegedly anti-Muslim comment. But we were quick to point out that nobody had ever been fired by NPR for their anti-Catholic fare.
To be explicit, on Jan. 7, 2008, the Utah NPR station, KCPW, aired a skit lampooning Mike Huckabee that trashed Jesus. On the show, “Fair Game with Faith Salie,” the following was said: “Tired of bland unsatisfying Eucharists? Try this Huckabee family favorite. Deep-Fried Body of Christ—boring holy wafers no more….Mike likes his Christ with whipped cream and sprinkles.” After we complained, we heard from Public Radio International, which produced the show, and they pulled it, issuing an apology. While the show did not originate at NPR, its Utah affiliate did not have to air it. No one was fired.
On July 5, 1997, NPR mocked the Eucharist when host Scott Simon and musical satirist, Tom Lehrer, got together. Lehrer sang “The Vatican Rag.” The following are some of the lyrics: “Try playing it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer”; “Two, four, six, eight, time to Trans-substantiate.”
Moreover, if Williams merited being fired for expressing reservations about people with Muslim garb boarding a plane, then why was it okay for Dahlia Lithwick of NPR (at the time) to express her reservations about having “too many Catholics” on the Supreme Court? On Nov. 1, 2005, she exclaimed, “People are very, very much talking about the fact that Alito would be the fifth Catholic on the Supreme Court if confirmed.” Earlier, on Aug. 2, she expressed concerns about the “very, very strong religious views” of Catholic Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Moreover, on July 23, Nina Totenberg of NPR raised a red flag over high court nominee John Roberts’ wife because she was “an officer of a pro-life organization.” As for Roberts himself, she said, “He’s got adopted children. I mean, he’s a conservative Catholic.”
We found the duplicity is sickening and asked our members to contact Anna Christopher, NPR’s media relations manager.
A few hours after we issued our release, Christopher placed a phone call to Jeff Field, the Catholic League’s director of communications. She called Field to complain about our news release. She accused us of “cherry-picking” instances of NPR’s anti-Catholic programming, adding that our “heated” news release resulted in a large amount of “mean-spirited” e-mails.
We didn’t “cherry-pick” anything: we simply went to our files and cited a few examples of National Public Radio’s intolerance of Catholicism. The news release, as anyone could see, was hardly “heated.” Moreover, we are not responsible for any allegedly “mean-spirited” e-mails she may have received.
Talk about thin-skinned. Why is it that NPR can dish it out, but can’t take it? If it doesn’t want Catholics complaining, then lay off us. And while they’re at it, they might think about leveling the playing field when it comes to employee “misconduct.”



OBAMA: RIGHTS STEM FROM THE STATE

Recently, President Barack Obama set off a firestorm after he gave a few speeches this fall; the president quoted from the Declaration of Independence, omitting any reference to God.
At an October fundraiser in Rockville, Maryland, he spoke of “inalienable rights,” mentioning that “all men are created equal,” but omitted what comes after this phrase: namely, he did not say “that they are endowed by their Creator” with these unalienable rights.
Only a month before that, after Obama omitted the same words before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (there are four references to God in the Declaration), we faulted his speech writers but defended the president by saying he should have been “given a pass.” We could no longer do so. We said that it was painfully obvious that President Obama does not believe that individual rights are given to us by God.
The most dramatic historical achievement of the American Revolution was the insistence of the Founders that the state is not the source of our rights. What the state grants, it can take away. We saw this most strikingly under the Soviets: the Soviet Constitution was a marvelous tribute to human liberty, the only problem being that it made the state the origin of individual rights. By declaring God to be the origin of rights, the Founders deliberately awarded a subordinate role to government.
Addressing the media on this issue, Bill Donohue said, “President Obama is the first president in American history not to acknowledge that all rights stem from God. Given that all prepared presidential speeches are written and vetted by many people, and that he was roundly criticized last month for this same infraction, it is only fair to conclude that this was not a mistake. This was deliberate.”
It was only a few days after we issued our news release that the president used the word “Creator” in three separate instances over a single weekend. Guess he got the message.



“BOARDWALK EMPIRE” REACHES NEW LOW

On a recent episode of the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire,” a gratuitous cheap shot was taken at Catholics. The scene that outraged Catholics all over, was the one in which a group of men were watching a silent film in which a nun is having sex.
There is something pernicious about Hollywood’s non-stop assault on Catholicism. The shot of a nun on her hands and knees being penetrated from behind, and another that showed a man performing cunnilingus on her, was thrown into the show, just to stick it to Catholics. When addressing this episode, Bill Donohue said,  “There is nothing left to the imagination—this is graphic pornography.”
It is no wonder that Hollywood’s hatred of religion, especially Roman Catholicism, has turned so many against it, even, regrettably, to the point of violence. This latest contribution, thanks to the show’s executive producer, Martin Scorsese, was particularly vile. Indeed, it reaches a new low.
The time has come for our members to write directly to Richard Plepler, co-president of HBO [contact him at 1100 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY 10036]. Bill Donohue knows him, and while they have a cordial relationship, he wants you to weigh in; what HBO is doing is wrong. Remember, they also air Bill Maher’s show.


BILL MAHER JUST CAN’T MOVE ON

Bill Maher is back on the radar screen of the Catholic League. He recently lashed out at Catholicism on two different occasions: comments about gay priests on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell”; and his explanation to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about controversial comments he made about Muslims on his HBO show.
On the MSNBC show, Larry O’Donnell took some legitimate jabs at Republican candidates in this fall’s election, citing them for making what he labeled as “stupid comparisons” between being gay and being an alcoholic or obese. Bill Maher agreed, but couldn’t help but take the opportunity to once again attack homosexual priests, painting them all as molesters.
In an apparent Freudian slip, Maher said, “We really can’t resist [talking about gays in the Catholic Church] if it’s all around us.” He should have personalized it: he can’t talk about gays without talking about priests. “You know,” he continued, “that’s how the Catholic Church talks about it. You know, ‘our priests are not sinning, they’re just giving into temptation when they’re molesting children and going gay and stuff like that.’”
Maher is correct to imply that most of the molesting priests have been homosexuals: eight in ten have been. But he is wrong to imply that most gay priests have been molesters. Moreover, the Catholic Church has never sanctioned such behavior. Indeed, one of the reasons why this problem has been checked in the Catholic Church—no institution, secular or religious, has a better record these days—is precisely because homosexual candidates for the priesthood are screened very carefully.
Maher needs to get up to date. He should instead focus on the rampant sexual abuse that occurs in the public schools, and the central role the teachers’ unions play in fighting necessary reforms. But he would no more take on the teachers than Jay Leno or Joy Behar ever would. They are much more at home bashing Catholics.
A couple of weeks following his appearance with O’Donnell, Maher appeared on Wolf Blitzer’s CNN program.
Blitzer asked Maher to discuss the remarks he had recently made about Muslims; on his HBO show, Maher expressed concerns about the popularity of naming boys Muhammad in the U.K., noting the high birth rate of Muslims and how this does not bode well for the future. When asked to explain himself, Maher gave a lengthy response, citing his interest in maintaining such Western values as liberty and equality (he either does not know that those values originated with Christianity, or does not want to admit it).
Maher’s response to Muslims was eminently fair. But when contrasted with his comments on Catholics, it made him look like a rank hypocrite. The kinds of despicable statements he has made over the years about Catholicism—trashing Jesus, mocking the Eucharist, ridiculing the pope, portraying all priests as molesters—demonstrates his duplicity. Even when pressed to explain his “controversial” remarks about Muslims, he showed more respect for Islam than he has ever shown for Catholicism. Indeed, he looked positively defensive trying to get this monkey off his back: he is never defensive about discussing his Catholic bashing. Maybe “defensive” is not the right word—he looked a little scared. Wonder why.
There is something sick about Maher. With an Irish-Catholic father and a Jewish mother, one might have thought that he would be sensitive to both anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism. But not a chance. It’s just anti-Semitism that seems to bother him: he’s quite at home tolerating, and even contributing to, anti-Catholicism.


VICTORY IN GEORGIA

We recently received word that a disturbing video was shown at a seminar for the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association (GTLA) and then was placed on the organization’s website. The video “A World Without Lawyers,” highlighted the benefits of trial lawyers including their roles in medical malpractice, fighting corporations and civil rights.
The disturbing element of the video was that it mentioned, “Attorneys fought to expose generations of hidden sexual abuse…” followed by an image of the Boston Globe’s front-page story of Cardinal Bernard Law’s resignation. Thus, giving the impression that all Catholic bishops were guilty of wrongdoing.
After we received word, Bill Donohue immediately sent GTLA president Michael Warshauer a letter objecting to the use of the image in the video. After he received the letter, Warshauer removed the offensive image from the video from the GTLA website and his personal website as well.
We are happy that this issue came to a fair resolution.



VICTIMS’ SUMMIT BUST

Last April, the National Catholic Reporter ran a story on the so-called “Victims’ Summit,” a gathering of alleged victims of priestly sexual abuse that was scheduled to take place at the Vatican in St. Peter’s Square on October 31. At that time, Bernie McDaid, one of the organizers, predicted they would amass 50,000 people in a massive show of anger against the Catholic Church.
When the dissident Catholic newspaper recently reported on the event, it mentioned that a grand total of 60 protesters showed up near St. Peter’s Square.
Looks like this issue has run its course.



CNN RETRACTS BOGUS FIGURE

On November 11, investigator John Walsh was interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper on the subject of pedophilia. Walsh mentioned that 100,000 victims of priestly sexual abuse had recently sought a meeting with the pope. He was referring to the so-called “Victims’ Summit”; we cited 60 who showed up, while others gave the figure of 100.
We contacted CNN immediately asking for a retraction, and we got one. Anderson Cooper was very fair: he said the correct figure was 100, not 100,000. Indeed, he even apologized for misrepresenting the actual count, even though the error was made by his guest.
Because Bill Donohue had recently written to several CNN officials complaining about its documentary on the pope, he thought it only fair to write to the same persons thanking them for being so fair about this matter.



“MEMPHIS” IS A MUST SEE

Catholic League director of communications Jeff Field recently had the opportunity to see the Broadway show “Memphis.” Unlike most plays these days, this is one which most Christians will find entertaining and inspiring.
Opening to critical acclaim in October of 2009, the Broadway musical “Memphis” is a hit that should not be missed. Set in the segregated southern city of Memphis in the 1950s, the musical is more than a show full of catchy tunes and a wonderful cast; it is a lesson on how to live our lives true to our Christian values and a demonstration of the importance of God.
The story revolves around a young white disc-jockey named Huey and a black lounge singer named Felicia. When Huey first heard Felicia sing, he was moved and knew that her voice could be one to help bring unity to an area divided by race. It is through her voice and the redemptive quality of religion that help bridge that gap.
A tale of redemption, faith, forgiveness and hope, it is no wonder why “Memphis” won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2010. The show will have you thinking, laughing and tapping your feet. When looking for a Broadway hit, that is sure not to disappoint, look no further than “Memphis.”


NEWSPAPERS NIX “MUSLIM” CARTOON

On October 12, we commented on the decision by editors at theWashington Post not to run a cartoon that mentioned, but did not depict, Muhammad. We referred to our October 8 release that noted how Universal decided to nix the words, “electric cars are so gay,” from the trailer of “The Dilemma.” We ended that statement by saying, “There are protected demographic groups in society, and people of faith, save for Muslims, are not among them.”

Two days later, the Washington Post proved our point: it decided not to publish a totally inoffensive cartoon [left], one that shows kids and animals frolicking about in a park, simply because it asks, “Where’s Muhammad?”

According to the Post’s Style editor Ned Martel, the reason for not printing the “Non Sequitur” strip by Wiley Miller was that “it seemed a deliberate provocation without a clear message”; executive editor Marcus Brauchli agreed.

So the problem was that Miller didn’t have a clear message. Maybe Tom Toles, the Washington Post cartoonist, should have brought him up to speed. On March 29, the Post printed a cartoon [bottom right] by Toles that showed a picture of Jesus with the words, “Let the Little Children Come to Me” and a priest saying, “What a Great Recruitment Poster!” Nothing unclear about that: all priests are child molesters.

We brought this issue to the attention of the executive editors at the nation’s leading newspapers, and to the deans of the nation’s leading schools of journalism. Both the Toles cartoon, and the Miller cartoon, were submitted for their review. We said it was time to have a national discussion on what passes as offensive fare these days. Or, more pointedly, whose sensibilities are to be protected, and whose are to be assaulted.
The day after we sent the letter to the nation’s top newspapers and journalism schools, we found out that many more newspapers refused to publish the inoffensive cartoon.

Thanks to James Rainey at the Los Angeles Times, we learned that the cartoon was pulled from his own newspaper, as well as from the Dallas Morning News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe and many other papers.

When presented with this information, Bill Donohue said, “Every time Catholics complain about some Catholic-bashing artwork, movie, television show, play or cartoon, we are told that ‘art is in the eye of the beholder’; ‘it’s open to interpretation’; ‘it’s done to make people think’; ‘it’s complex’; and other dodges. But when it comes to Muslim sensibilities, it is sufficient to censor anything that might possibly tick them off, even if every person not housed in the asylum knows the work is innocuous.”

Unfortunately, those who are not cowards in dealing with this issue are in the minority. A book can be published about the Danish cartoons, but the cartoons cannot be reproduced in the same volume. Matt Stone and Trey Parker at Comedy Central can mock Jesus on “South Park,” but can’t joke lightly about Muhammad. And now we have newspapers galore that would rather prostitute everything they stand for before ever making Muslims feel uneasy.

It is obvious that they no longer stand for anything.



OBAMA OMITS “CREATOR” FROM SPEECH

Recently, President Obama addressed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s at its 33rd Annual Awards event. In his remarks, he made reference to the Declaration of Independence. Obama said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

There are several errors here, though only one that really matters. On a small scale, Jefferson chose “unalienable” instead of “inalienable,” and following the word “rights” there is no colon: instead it should read, “that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” What really matters, however, is the omission of any reference to God: after “equal” it should read, “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….”

Some blamed the president for this error, but it was his speechwriters, and those who vetted his address, who were to blame.

The prepared remarks, as released by the White House, omit the word “Creator.” Since this got by so many in the White House, it makes us wonder whether only incompetence was at work. While Obama may be given a pass, it is striking nonetheless that this omission got by a former constitutional law professor.

There are four references to God in the Declaration. God is the author of the “laws of nature and nature’s God”; he is the “Creator” who “endowed” us with “unalienable rights”; he is “the Supreme Judge of the world”; and he provides “the protection of Divine Providence.”

Bill Donohue, a former professor of political science, said, “I made sure my students understood this, but evidently none of those who write or vet the president’s speeches learned this in college.”

They should pay more attention, especially given the suspicion that President Obama likes his religion lite.