Bill Donohue comments on the Catholic League’s campaign against the ABC show, “The Real O’Neals,” and why he is asking the parent company of Chevy to drop its sponsorship

Please contact Joe Jacuzzi, executive director of Global Chevrolet and Brand Communications, and tell him how offended Catholics are by a show that is based on the life of an obscene anti-Catholic bigot, Dan Savage (who is also an executive producer), and why we are requesting that General Motors stop advertising Chevy on the show.

Contact: joe.jacuzzi@gm.com

Bill Donohue comments on the Catholic League’s campaign against the ABC show, “The Real O’Neals,” and why he is asking the parent company of Allegra to drop its sponsorship:

Please contact Jack Cox of Sanofi Media Relations (Allegra is owned by Chattem which is owned by Sanofi) and tell him how offended Catholics are by a show that is based on the life of an obscene anti-Catholic bigot, Dan Savage (who is also an executive producer), and why we are requesting that Sanofi stop advertising Allegra on the show.

Contact: mr@sanofi.com

Bill Donohue comments on last night’s episode of “The Real O’Neals”:

The entire episode was based on a red herring: it ridiculed teachings on sexuality that are not those of the Catholic Church, yet attributed them to it. This is more tired than clever.

The theme, as always, was about sex, and that is because Dan Savage, upon whose life the show is based, has been in a perpetual rage against Catholicism ever since he learned that he was sexually attracted to males.

The episode trashed Grandma Agnes. And why not? After all, the elderly are a good foil and easy to mock. Along the way, the Holy Spirit was ridiculed and Holy Communion and Confession were belittled. Par for the course.

The show is collapsing.

Contact Ben Sherwood at Disney-ABC: ben.sherwood@abc.com

Bill Donohue comments on the Catholic League’s campaign against the ABC show, “The Real O’Neals”:

Yesterday, we contacted the Disney board of directors, requesting our members to personally contact Disney chief Robert Iger; we would like to see “The Real O’Neals” cancelled. Today, we begin our campaign targeting the show’s sponsors.

Please contact Ernie Knewitz, Vice President of Global Media Relations, at Johnson & Johnson. Tell him how offended Catholics are by a show that is based on the life of an obscene anti-Catholic bigot, Dan Savage (who is also an executive producer), and why we are asking Johnson & Johnson to drop its sponsorship.

Contact: eknewitz@its.jnj.com

Bill Donohue comments on last night’s HBO documentary, “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures”:

Robert Mapplethorpe was a homosexual who lived a reckless life; he died in 1989 at the age of 42. He was also known for his tortured relationship with the Catholic Church. But no one would know this from watching the HBO celebration of him.

“I think the way I arrange things is very Catholic,” he is quoted as saying, “even though I was never a religious person.” The film uses this as a platform to understand his fixation on Satan. To Mapplethorpe, Satan was not some evil figure; rather, he was a convivial playmate who enjoyed seducing young women. According to one of the photographer’s friends, he also thought there was “something very ritualistic about sadomasochism,” noting that it was “kind of a Black Mass.”

What the documentary did not focus on was Mapplethorpe’s vicious assault on New York’s Cardinal John O’Connor. In a catalog featuring Mapplethorpe’s work, he is quoted as saying, “This fat cannibal from the house of walking swastikas up on fifth avenue should lose his tax exempt status and pay retroactive taxes for the last couple of centuries.”

For the record, Cardinal O’Connor quietly visited hospitals that tended to AIDS patients, cleaning their bed pans. Those who, like Mapplethorpe, behaviorally contracted AIDS—and died of it—were the ones whom O’Connor helped. Indeed, the Archdiocese of New York, under his tutelage, did more to help AIDS patients than any other private provider in New York City.

HBO clearly decided that viewers need not know anything about this, which is why it was not reported. Why should they—it would only complicate their lives and get in the way of the documentary’s narrative.

Contact Quentin Schaffer, Executive VP, HBO Communications: Quentin.Schaffer@hbo.com

Bill Donohue comments on an incomplete New York Times story:

On the front page of today’s New York Times there is a story about priestly sexual abuse that occurred “long ago” in a western Pennsylvania diocese. The story’s omissions are glaring. Here are some of them:

• Readers never learn what “long ago” means. In fact, the cases of alleged abuse extend back to World War II.

• Readers never learn why old cases of alleged abuse at one high school in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown was sufficient cause for the local D.A. to refer these cases to the state Attorney General.

• Readers never learn why a grand jury of decades-old allegations in the diocese was summoned, but no other institution, public or private, was probed. It simply cannot be that there are no old cases outstanding in any other institution in the state. So why the cherry-picking?

• Readers never learn that the attorney who took the case in western Pennsylvania came from out-of-state, and that he has a tarnished ethical record.

• Readers never learn that the two bills that are proposed to revise the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases involving minors only apply to private institutions. Neither bill would affect the public schools, even though Pennsylvania public school teachers have the second worst record in the nation when it comes to raping students.

Other than that, the story was accurate.

Contact Laurie Goodstein: laurieg@nytimes.com

Bill Donohue explains the next phase of the Catholic League’s campaign against “The Real O’Neals”:

Today, we are contacting the eleven members of the Disney board of directors asking them to use their influence in cancelling the ABC show, “The Real O’Neals” (ABC is owned by Disney). The show is based on a virulent anti-Catholic, Dan Savage (he is also an executive producer), and it stars another raging bigot, Martha Plimpton. No television show should ever be centered on producers and actors known for harboring an animus against any demographic group.

Now is the time to kill the show. Last week’s episode drew only 3.75 million viewers, down from 3.82 the week before (the CBS and NBC shows that are in competition with it both drew well over 10 million viewers last week).

We are contacting all of the members of the Disney board; we are asking that you contact the President and CEO, Robert A. Iger. Tomorrow, we will appeal to the show’s sponsors, asking those of you who receive our news releases to contact one sponsor a day, until the list is exhausted.

Contact: robert.a.iger@disney.com

Bill Donohue comments on Hillary Clinton’s remarks on abortion, made yesterday on “Meet the Press”:

“Under Roe v. Wade, as you know,” said Hillary, “there is room for reasonable kinds of restrictions after a certain point in time.” She did not say why she has never found a restriction she could support, including the reasonable restriction on stabbing the skull of a baby who is 80 percent born (otherwise known as partial-birth abortion).

“The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights,” she said. Having conceded that pregnant mothers are carrying the life of another person, she did not feel obligated to protect that life. Moreover, she did not say why constitutional rights can be denied to one class of persons without greasing the slide to denying other classes of persons.

Hillary’s position is eerily reminiscent of what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney said in his infamous 1857 Dred Scott ruling on slavery: He declared that blacks had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

Hillary also told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that “in the third trimester of pregnancy there is room for looking at the life and the health of the mother.” This shows how abortion totally confounds her—it is not just Donald Trump who needs to develop a coherent position.

Third trimester discussions do not focus exclusively on “the life and the health of the mother”; rather, they focus on “the life and the health” of the baby, as well. She knows that but can’t admit to it.

Last year, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. “At five months,” he said, “that’s the time when that unborn child can feel pain.” Hillary labeled his decision “dangerous.” Dangerous to whom? According to her reasoning, expounded yesterday, it couldn’t be the child. After all, unborn persons have no constitutional rights.

Contact: press@hillaryclinton.com

Bill Donohue comments on a new Catholic League initiative:

Beginning today, the Catholic League is launching a new campaign against the ABC show, “The Real O’Neals.” Our goal is to kill the show.

Thus far, we have (a) published a New York Times op-ed page ad against the show (b) implored our members to email Disney-ABC executive Ben Sherwood (c) issued news releases on each episode, and (d) granted several interviews. But given a new development, we need to do more.

Those who have been following our objections to the show know that it is not the content of the show that we find most offensive, it is the fact that it is based on the life of one of its executive producers, Dan Savage. The man is an unrepentant, foul-mouthed, anti-Catholic bigot. Now we have learned that Martha Plimpton, who plays the mother in the show, is also an unabashed anti-Catholic.

“The character I play is a homophobe,” Plimpton told the Los Angeles Times, “but she’s a homophobe because she’s based her entire value system on her faith.” She then maintained that Catholicism “tells you that anyone who is gay is going to burn in hell.” She is badly educated.

The Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality are no more “homophobic” than are the teachings of Judaism, from which our beliefs on sexuality are drawn. Moreover, the Church teaches that all human beings are equal in the eyes of God. Furthermore, the Church has never proclaimed that any person, or group of persons, is destined to hell.

We knew that Plimpton is pro-abortion, and likes to brag about the two that she had. But we did not know about her bigotry. When coupled with Savage’s bigotry, this demands that we take our response to a new level.

The first salvo in our new campaign can be found in the April edition of our monthly journal, Catalyst: members are asked to write to Sherwood at his New York office. On April 4, we will map out the entire campaign.

Bill Donohue comments on New York State Senator Brad Hoylman’s response to my suggestion that his bill, which would eliminate the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of minors, cover the public schools as well as private schools:

Ken Lovett of the New York Daily News asked Sen. Hoylman yesterday about my request to amend his bill, and he said that while he supports treating private and public schools alike, “it would be wrong to hide behind the issue to block legislation from being passed.”

Accordingly, the Catholic League will contact every member of the New York legislature today asking them to submit a bill that would suspend the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of minors, with one caveat: that it cover only the public schools. If anyone objects, all they need do is take a page from Sen. Hoylman and say that private and public schools should be treated the same, “but it would be wrong to hide behind the issue to block legislation from being passed.”

Contact Sen. Hoylman: hoylman@nysenate.gov