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.
