Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a Washington Post column that appeared yesterday:
Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote a particularly flawed piece that appeared on the front page of the Style section in yesterday’s edition of the newspaper.
She is not happy that the conviction of Australian Cardinal George Pell on charges of sexual molestation didn’t get more news coverage. A retrial was ordered after the first trial resulted in a hung jury (10 of the 12 jurors concluded he was not guilty), though Sullivan failed to mention this. His case is almost certain to be appealed. It should be. Anyone who has studied his ordeal knows how bogus the charges are (click here for my account).
Sullivan acknowledges that the Australian courts are guilty of censoring the news about Pell’s trial, but still finds a way to drag the Catholic Church into this. “The secrecy surrounding the court case—and now the verdict—is offensive. That’s especially so because it echoes the secrecy that has always been so appalling a part of widespread sexual abuse by priests.”
Sullivan then goes on to praise the Boston Globe for its stories on the Catholic Church, applauds the victims’ group SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests), and concludes by touting journalists “whose core mission is truth-telling.”
This is hard to stomach. I just got stiffed by the truth tellers at the Boston Globe—they refused to allow me to see the raw data upon which their “study” of bishops was made. When I confined my request to reading the transcripts of the interviews they conducted, I was again stiffed.
To be sure, there are lots of good journalists who are driven by truth telling, but they sure don’t include the top editors at the Boston Globe. They are masters of secrecy.
SNAP is thoroughly corrupt—I exposed them as a monumental fraud years before they crashed (their latest incarnation is a joke). That is why it is shocking to read Sullivan quoting one of their Aussie agents. Their credibility is totally shot.
The Washington Post also has a flawed record when it comes to truth telling. Just this month, I slammed them and the New York Times for not publishing a story on the court decision overturning the conviction of Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson. Yet both newspapers ran a story on his conviction in July. This is inexcusable.
“Washington Post Makes False Claims” was the title of my November 13 news release showing how the newspaper was factually wrong in reporting on the progress made by the Catholic Church on sexual abuse. I provided the data; they offered opinion.
There are noble journalists in America. There are also plenty of frauds.
