One of the pet peeves of the Catholic League is the extent to which our critics do a flip-flop when it comes to their allies. To be specific, it is not easy to listen to those who rail against us—calling us “censors”—when we protest a movie or TV show, and then watch them defend their ideological friends when they do the same. The reaction to Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s upcoming TV show is a textbook example of what we mean.
The same San Francisco board of supervisors who defended as freedom of speech the right of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to mock Catholics in 1999 has passed a resolution demanding that Dr. Laura change her views on homosexuality before she goes on TV. The same Susan Sarandon who defended as freedom of speech the right of the Brooklyn Museum of Art to host the “Sensation” exhibition, is campaigning against Dr. Laura’s TV show. Ditto for the ACLU.
All of which is to say that Dr. Laura has drawn the phonies out, and for that we can all be grateful.
