Some of those who have been highly critical of Mel Gibson are not without baggage themselves:
Christopher Hitchens, 7-31-06: “I was just in the middle of writing a long and tedious essay, about how to tell a real anti-Semite from a person who too loudly rejects the charge of anti-Semitism, when a near-perfect real-life example came to hand.”
· Here is what Hitchens said on March 23, 2000, when he debated Catholic League president Bill Donohue: “I might have to admit for debate purposes that when religion is attacked in this country that the Catholic Church comes in for little more than its fair share. I may say that I probably contributed somewhat to that and I am not ashamed of my part in it.”
Barbara Walters and Joy Behar on “The View,” 7-31-06: Walters said, “I don’t want to see any more Mel Gibson movies”; Behar added, “The world is so dangerous between what’s going on in the Middle East right now, and for this idiot to come out and say things….”
· September 28, 2005, Donohue wrote an open letter to Walters regarding the September 22 episode wherein he accused Behar et al. for “speaking in the most disparaging way about the Catholic Church’s teachings on women, celibacy and homosexuality.” Walters, the executive producer, looked on approvingly.
Arianna Huffington, 7-31-06: “For starters, the town’s players need to step up and publicly condemn Gibson’s vile comments.”
· On April 14, 2005, two weeks after the death of Pope John Paul II, Huffington blasted the pope for his teachings on sexuality, saying that “in his perversion pecking order, you had to be dead-set against ‘self-love’ but when it came to buggering little kids, there was some wiggle room.”
Donohue concluded: “While Mel is deeply apologetic for his offensive remarks, these people brazenly wear their anti-Catholic bigotry on their sleeves.”
