Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications for the Catholic League, contacted The American Prospect today requesting the right to republish the September 25 article by Kirsten A. Powers, “Who Should Apologize?”, in the November edition of Catalyst, the league’s monthly journal; the Powers piece was printed in the online edition of the magazine. Jahan Salehi, an agent for the publication, spoke to McCaffrey saying he would check out the Catholic League website and get back to her. After perusing our site, he said he would recommend honoring our request, noting, however, that officers atThe American Prospect wanted time to consider the matter. Salehi asked if the Catholic League held the same teachings as the Church on issues like abortion, and McCaffrey said yes.
Shortly afterward, Salehi called back to say that our request was denied. He specifically said that it was the Catholic League’s stance on abortion and gay rights that accounted for the rejection.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:
“The piece by Kirsten A. Powers is excellent and it’s too bad that The American Prospectdecided to censor her work without ever consulting her. That’s because the anti-Catholicism that marks this media outlet is so visceral that it even trumps the best interests of its own authors.
“On its website, it says that it is ‘an authoritative magazine of liberal ideas, committed to a just society, an enriched democracy, and effective liberal politics.’ It would be more honest to say that it is an authoritarian magazine of ill-liberal ideas, committed to an unjust society, impoverished democracy, and ineffective liberal politics.’ And anti-Catholicism.
“The American Prospect boasts that it has a paid circulation of 55,000, which means that it reaches far fewer people than Catalyst. Thus did they put the screws to Powers.”
