On January 16, the season premiere of the ABC show, “The Job,” depicted a detective dressed as a priest and a stripper dressed as a nun; it was not disclosed until the end that the “hot nun” is actually a stripper. The “nun” was shown stripping in front of one of the male detectives while three other detectives (two male, one female) watched her from behind a two-way mirror.
There was another scene where the “nun” put her foot on the crotch of one of the male detectives while being interrogated. This was followed by a scene where she puts her foot on the crotch of a female detective. The detective “priest” was shown abusing the confessional by seeking to squeeze information from a penitent known to have stolen money from the collection basket. An actor who is cast as a real monsignor is then depicted as being more concerned about his own reputation than he is about the detective who misrepresented himself as a priest in the confessional
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We sent the following statement to ABC and to the media:
“We knew ‘The Job’ would be vintage Catholic bashing before we saw it and here’s why: a) the producer and star is Denis Leary, who has made several contributions to anti-Catholicism b) it aired on ABC, which has also made several contributions to anti-Catholicism c) the premiere was dubbed ‘Sacrilege,’ which means it had to be anti-Catholic because no other religion is treated sacrilegiously on any network and d) advance reviews of the show in several newspapers tipped us off.
“Verne Gay of Newsday said it best when he commented that while the show is funny it ‘will come as little consolation to practicing Catholics and other upright citizens.’ He also got it right when he said this proves how ‘desperate’ ABC is for a hit. Ditto for Disney, the slumbering giant that owns the network. We expect ‘The Job’ will make another contribution to ABC’s already clogged toilet before too long.”
