Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on developments subsequent to his news release earlier today [click here] criticizing Huffington Post blogger Michele Somerville:
When my complaint was brought to the attention of the Huffington Post, they responded professionally and removed the lie about me by Michele Somerville: not only did I not condemn New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for his personal lifestyle or religious convictions, I expressly declined not to express an opinion about this subject when asked by the New York Daily News; Somerville actually linked this news story to her article, thus proving that she knew what my position was. But that didn’t stop her from intentionally misrepresenting me.
I am thankful to the religion editor at the Huffington Post for acting so quickly and fairly; she was the one who deleted what Somerville said about me. I am also thankful to our wonderful members who moved so judiciously, and with dispatch, to contact the Internet site.
Because of the heavy volume of responses they received, we are honoring their request not to post the personal e-mail address of the religion editor. But those who would like to convey their gratitude to her, can do so by contacting religion@huffingtonpost.com.
*After this news release was issued, the senior religion editor for Huffington Post said that the link provided by Somerville to the Daily News article was to a different story on the same topic. We contend that (a) the story where Donohue was quoted as not taking a position on Cuomo was cited by Somerville as a “related story,” making it implausible that she never read it, and (b) in any event, she put quote marks around a comment she attributed to Donohue that he never made. The editor also said that it was Somerville who made the decision to delete the entire reference to Donohue. We are happy to note this.
