Sarah Knoploh's blog

Newsweek’s Ramin Setoodeh apparently really likes controversial pop star Lady Gaga, enough to praise her for revolutionizing music vidoes while ignoring her controversial "artistic" decisions.

In a July 15 article, “I Want My Music Video,” Setoodeh gushed over Lady Gaga, as well as YouTube, for helping revitalize the dying art of the music video. But not once did Setoodeh point out how inappropriate her music videos truly are.

Setoodeh labeled Lady Gaga’s music videos as “theatrical.” He hyped the music videos as having, “the production values of an action movie with special effects, elaborate costumes, background dancers, and more bling than the Oscars.”

USA Today recently gave free advertising in the form of a 900-word profile to a summer camp, Camp Quest. But unlike other summer camps, however, Camp Quest is for children of atheists and agnostics.

In “Summer camp caters to kids of atheists, agnostics,” Meredith Heagney touted Camp Quest as being just like any other summer camp, but she admitted that, while there is an “emphasis on open-mindedness, poking fun at faith isn’t forbidden.”

One teenage camper stated that they “do talk sometimes about how silly … different religions are and what they to do.”

The Washington Post’s really should consider renaming Anthony Stevens-Arroyo’s column in its “On Faith” blog. “Catholic America” should be “Liberal Democrat Catholic America,” just for the sake of truth in advertising.

On June 23, left-wing hack Stevens-Arroyo again injected his politics into the ostensibly religious column. In “Common good v corp. profits,” he actually wrote that Catholics should “embrace a redistribution of wealth.”

The column sought to explain how Catholics and others should view Judge Martin Feldman’s ruling overturning the Obama moratorium on off-shore drilling. Why, the reader may ask, should this event have Catholic significance, beyond the fact that a liberal writer whose column has “Catholic” in the title was upset about it?

Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, was The Washington Post’s “On Faith” guest columnist on June 21. Predictably, she used the opportunity to bash the Catholic Church’s abortion policy. In “Should Church control access to health care?” Northup charged that the Catholic Church wields too much influence over policy decisions dealing with abortion.

Northup complained, “This year at home, we saw the U.S. government give the Conference on Catholic Bishops veto power over the health-care reform bill, and in the end, millions of American women were left with a policy that restricts insurance coverage for abortion services even for those who pay for their insurance with their own hard-earned dollars.”

“8: The Mormon Proposition,” is a documentary detailing the large role the Mormon Church played in passing California’s Proposition 8 in 2008.That ballot initiative added an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. While the media has naturally been praising the documentary, the movie is so biased that even some reviewers couldn’t avoid pointing out how one-sided it is.

Directed by Reed Cowan, the film first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. “8: The Mormon Proposition” is narrated by Lance Dustin, who was the screenwriter for “Milk,” the movie about California’s first openly gay elected official.

The trailer features protestors, people upset about the passage of Proposition 8, and paints the Mormon Church negatively for influencing the outcome of Proposition 8.

Pop music sensation Lady Gaga recently released a music video for her popular song, “Alejandro,” but the music video was so controversial that it was denounced as being blasphemy. Despite the video’s clear inappropriate sexual content and profane misuse of Catholic religious symbols, the liberal blogspot Huffington Post joined with the rest of the media in praising the video.

Author Michele Somerville wrote in her June 14 article, “Holy Gaga! A Catholic’s Defense of ‘Alejandro’” that she, “gives ‘Alejandro’ a thumbs ups. It’s pop culture tour de force.”

According to Somerville, “the only sin” she found with the video is that it is a, “possible transgressions against Madonna.” In the music video Lady Gaga swallows a rosary while dressed as a nun, simulates intercourse, and features half-naked men dancing in high heels.

The June 21 Time cover article told the sad stories of those affected by the BP oil spill and explored mistakes, mishaps and unfortunate events that have combined to compound the disaster. But in “The Gulf Disaster: Who’s Asses Need Kicking?” author Bryan Walsh went ultimately to spoiled American consumers both for refusing to grant government unlimited power over business, and for demanding mobility facilitated by inexpensive fuel.

“We accept the business argument that regulation is an evil that isn’t necessary, rather than a necessary evil, and then we’re surprised when a rig blows and disaster ensues,” Walsh tutted.

He called the current regulations “toothless” and explained that a current problem is, “the tendency of too many government overseers to get too friendly with the industry they’re supposed to be monitoring.”

The Los Angeles Times gave free press to artists who are against the Arizona immigration law on June 2. In “Arizona Law Spurs Backlash Among Artists,” author Reed Johnson documented what lefty artists are doing to help overturn the law, without presenting a single quote dissenting from the liberal artists’ positions.

Johnson inaccurately characterized the public as “deeply deeply divided over the Arizona law…” He must not have seen the Pew poll that found 59 percent of Americans approve of the law or the Wall Street Journal and NBC poll that discovered that 64 percent surveyed approve of the law. In an election, either number would constitute a landslide.

The June 7 Time magazine cover blared, “Why Being Pope Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry,” and the article explored the sexual abuse that has occurred in the Catholic Church and how the church might overcome the scandal. But the authors, Jeff Israely and Howard Chua-Eoan, left little doubt that they viewed Pope Benedict XVI as already guilty in the sexual abuse scandal.

The article tried to build that case. The pair wrote, “Over the past two months, the Pope has led the Holy See's shift from silence and denial to calls to face the enemies from within the church. What is still missing, however, is any mention of the Holy Father's alleged role in the scandal.” The story was very one-sided – filled with abuse victims and critics of the church, but included virtually no experts defending the pope or the Catholicism.

Israely and Chua-Eoan presumably based their article in part on a New York Times report alleging that as archbishop, Benedict protected the church over children by transferring priests when abuse occurred in the United States, Germany, and Ireland. Another Times article accused Pope Benedict XVI of allowing priests to remain in Wisconsin after they abused deaf boys, although this is report has been strongly questioned.

The United States is fighting two wars - in Iraq and Afghanistan - so it's natural that the nation's leaders have a solid understanding of what war is about. But President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court has no wartime experience and if she is confirmed, that would mean no member of the highest court would have served in the military in or near combat.

This is a major shift for a nation with a proud military tradition. In the past 100 years, the United States has fought two World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the Gulf War. American servicemen and women fought in the Philippines, Grenada, Panama, Somalia and Bosnia and many more. Given the nature of the terror threat America faces, more countries probably will likely join that list.

The three major broadcast networks have ignored this issue since Obama's May 10 nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. Kagan does not have any military experience and is considered by some as anti-military. Yet, out of 17 stories on ABC, CBS and NBC since Kagan was named, not one has even mentioned the issue of wartime experience.

This, despite liberal arguments that a judge's experience is key to his or her decisions, and that the most lionized of progressive Supreme Court justices was an emphatically proud veteran of the Civil War, whose tombstone lists his war service before his court tenure.  

“Sex and the City 2” hits theaters May 27 and the media have been promoting the new film. NBC’s “The Today Show” joined in touting the movie by having star Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda Hobbes, on May 25. But the interview took a curious turn when Nixon was given a platform to support same-sex marriage in New York.

Host Meredith Vieira was discussing a Hollywood Reporter review that called the movie “proudly feminist, but blatantly anti-Muslim, when she stated, “In real life, you are engaged to Christine Mariononi.”

Nixon began dating Mariononi after splitting with her husband, Danny Mozes, with whom she has two children. Nixon and Mariononi became engaged last year.

After Nixon confirmed she still was, Vieira said, “Your partner for six years. And you have said if the, the same sex-marriage bill passes in this state, you plan to get married.”

A video of young girls provocatively dancing in skimpy outfits recently surfaced on the Internet. The public outcry it garnered was so great that the girls’ parents appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to defend the dance routine. But the inappropriate dancing shouldn’t really be surprising in an era when girls are exposed to less-than ideal role models and bombarded with sexualized messages in the media.

From Lindsay Lohan to Britney Spears, positive role models are hard to find in the entertainment industry. Even teen sensation Miley Cyrus, known for her breakout role in Disney’s wholesome “Hannah Montana,” has been shedding her good girl image. Despite wearing her religious faith on her sleeve, Cyrus has had some controversies in the past and was recently hit with a couple more scandals. Her new music video, “Can’t Be Tamed” featured her dancing provocatively, and footage recently emerged of her grinding with a man in his forties at a party.

NBC’s “Law and Order” has been known to promote a liberal agenda and the May 10 episode was no exception. “The Taxman Cometh” followed the New York City detectives as they tried to prove that three wealthy families purposely allowed an ailing member of their family to die during 2010, since the inheritance tax isn’t in effect. But the twisted plotline included blatant support for gay marriage.

Catherine Douglas was one heir who allowed her wealthy father, Henry, to die in 2010 through the help of an accountant who sent the dying family members to an alternative medicine clinic. As part of their investigation, the detectives questioned Amber Green, who was Douglas’ ex-partner.

It was discovered, however, that Douglas had secretly adopted Green as a daughter as a way to gain certain legal rights for their relationship. Green explained, “We were together for a long time. Before gay marriage existed, a lot of gay partners adopted each other to get family rights.”

It’s no secret that reality shows on television can sometimes promote less than ideal values. From “Tila Tequila” to “The Jersey Shore,” viewers are often subjected to the culture of hookups and nonstop partying. But a new reality show is actually going to auction off virgins to the highest bidder.

According to the New York Post, two women and one male virgin will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The show will air in Australia, but will be filmed in Nevada, where prostitution is legal. Another reason the show will be filmed in Nevada is because the show’s filmmaker, Justin Sisely, was threatened along with the virgins to be charged with prostitution if it was filmed in Australia.

Most people do spring cleaning to get rid of unwanted items and to perhaps start fresh. The Washington Post recently compiled a spring cleaning list of “Twelve Things the World Should Toss Out.” But instead of suggesting getting rid of old clothes or unused exercise equipment, blogger Jessica Valenti actually advocated that virginity should be headed for the dump.

Valenti, who is the author of “The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women,” first complained that there is no set definition of “virginity.” She went on to criticize efforts to remain abstinent until marriage, writing, “Promise rings, virginity pledges and other efforts to enforce chastity aren't just backward -- they're a failure, and they may even endanger teenagers.”

Washington Post “Right Now” blogger David Weigel once again has shown that he’s a peculiar choice to report on conservatism, after he bashed both traditional marriage proponents and Matt Drudge. On May 1 he tweeted, “I can empathize with everyone I cover except for the anti-gay marriage bigots. In 20 years no one will admit they were part of that.” Weigel attempted to defend his tweet in a May 3 article, “Covering Same-Sex Marriage,” but by then other members of the media had pointed out Weigel’s obvious bias on Twitter.

Weigel seems to be slow to learn from his mistakes, as this is the second time in under a week that his Twitter activity landed him in hot water. The previous incident included a “joke” accusing Drudge of child rape.

When it comes to matters of prayer, Joy Behar doesn’t know the difference between terrorists and former President George W. Bush.

The National Day of Prayer is coming up on May 6, but on “The Joy Behar Show” April 29, she was discussing the diversity of religion in America with former talk show host Phil Donahue.

In a discussion about the separation of church and state, Behar absurdly compared Bush’s prayers to God with terrorists’ prayers to Allah.

Joy Behar, along with three guests, continued to crusade against the new Arizona immigration law on April 29.

Guests included Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon, actress Rosie Perez and singer Jon Secada who all joined Behar in bashing the law.

Liberal Behar attempted to link immigration reform to attacks on gays saying, “You know I was thinking of how it's similar to gay bashing in a way. Because, you know, they'll come in from other parts of the country or wherever and they'll attack some gay guys in the Village here and Chelsea in New York City based on the way they look. It's a very similar thing that's going on. We're going to judge you on how you look, we’re gonna throw you in jail, and also they’re gonna throw these people in jail for six months?”

April 28 was apparently Abortion Uber Alles day at the liberal Web site Daily Kos. Aimee Thorne-Thomsen of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project stated that the number of women who receive abortions is “too low” in “Keep Abortions Safe and Legal? Yes. Make it Rare? Not the Point.” A separate article blasted the new law in Oklahoma that makes it mandatory for woman to receive ultrasounds by making crude comparisons and calling it “blackmail.”

Even though 1.21 million abortions were performed in 2005, this was not enough for Thorne-Thomsen. She wrote, “On the other hand, if those 1.21 million abortions represent only the women who could access abortion financially, geographically or otherwise, then that number is too low. Yes, too low.”

“A warming planet is just the tip of the iceberg, the warning light on the dashboard,” according to the Washington Post’s On Faith Guest Voices, Katharine Hayhoe. In her April 27 article, “Not Red, Not Blue, Just Green,” Hayhoe fretted about supposed climate change and attempted to use religion as a means to take action against global warming.

Hayhoe, a professor at Texas Tech and climate scientist, continued to sound the alarm and warned that global warming is only a “relatively small warning.” She described how, “Climate change is already altering the character of the places we know and love. It will continue to change in the future from what we have already done.”

HBO is airing a movie, “You Don’t Know Jack,” about the life of Dr. Jack Kevorkian (aka: “Dr. Death”), who enabled the suicides of more than100 terminally-ill people. But the movie is so one-sided that even many mainstream media reviewers couldn’t help but point it out. USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe all noted how the movie favored assisted suicides.

USA Today’s Robert Bianco complained, “But on the crucial social issue itself – a person's right to die and a doctor's obligation to assist – the film falls squarely and unfailingly on Kevorkian's side.”

According to Bianco, “Everyone who stands against him is either an idiot, a bigot, or a politically motivated hack.” He cautioned, “Take that as a dual warning: You don’t get balance, and that one-sided approach can’t quite support the film’s overextended, two-hour-plus length.”

USA Today featured a special article to help celebrate Earth Day by Mark Thoreau, an indirect descendant of author Henry David Thoreau. In “Thoreau Descendant Reflects on Walden Pond, Earth Day,” Thoreau, however, took the opportunity to call for more government involvement on environmental issues and even praised the Sierra Club, the left-wing environmental group.

Thoreau, an Englishman, explained how he has visited the scenic Walden Pond, the site where Henry David Thoreau lived for a little over two years, and was pleased with the condition of it. The site is now considered a Massachusetts state landmark and receives many visitors.

Right-wing media outlets are scary. That’s the view of the Associated Press’s John Miller who recently worried about newly formed conservative media outlets that are funded by think tanks to supposedly push their agenda. In the April 13 article, “News Sites Funded By Think Tanks Take Root,” Miller offered a completely one-sided report about how alternative news outlets are funded and failed to take into account either mainstream media’s bias or major new left-wing news outlets like Huffington Post.

Miller explained how conservative alternatives to the mainstream media are springing up due to newspaper budget cuts. But he cautioned, “The phenomenon troubles some longtime journalists and media watchdogs, who worry about political biases and hidden agendas.”

Never once were liberal media outlets mentioned, who too might have their own “hidden agendas.”

Comedian Kathy Griffin tried to sell her latest stunt, a poolside pap smear filmed for her show “My Life on the D List,” as a way to show young women the test is no big deal. But based on her April 15 appearance on “The Joy Behar Show,” it’s simply an excuse to crack crass jokes and describe “bedazzled” intimate body parts. Unsurprisingly, Behar eagerly added to the obscenities.   

According to Griffin, young women do not get pap smears because they are too scared to get one. Behar quipped, “You know, I can understand that attitude because in my day a lot of the girls were virgins, believe it or not. But the younger girls-these girl-- they're sleeping around like crazy. This is no big deal, believe me.”

Griffin unnecessarily claimed, “This is nothing compared to a rainbow party,” a group oral sex activity brought to national attention by Oprah in 2004.

Another day another anti-religion piece from Huffington Post Religion. On April 14 columnist Derek Beres wrote “Why Arresting the Pope is a Great Idea.” Not only that, but Beres actually compared Pope Benedict to director Roman Polanski, who raped a young girl. He also, of course, couldn’t resist ranting against the Church’s teachings on priests remaining celibate.

Atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have called for Pope Benedict’s arrest when he travels to Britain. Beres labeled this idea as “common sense.”

“If Roman Polanski can be arrested on sexual abuse charges after 32 years of hiding,” Beres wrote, “so can the Pope, holy or not.”

Pop sensation Lady Gaga recently made news when she announced that she is going to be celibate. Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, cited the rise of women infected with HIV as part of the reason she has chosen to remain celibate. While the pop star’s announcement was certainly a positive message to young fans, the lyrics in her hit songs promote anything but celibacy.

MTV.com reported Lady Gaga stated, “I can't believe I'm saying this — don't have sex. I'm single right now and I've chosen to be single because I don't have the time to get to know anybody.” She continued, “So it's OK not to have sex, it's OK to get to know people. I'm celibate, celibacy's fine.”

But she didn’t just stop there. “You don't have to have sex to feel good about yourself, and if you're not ready, don't do it. And if you are ready, there are free condoms given away at my concerts when you're leaving! ... I remember the cool girls when I was growing up. Everyone started to have sex. But it's not really cool anymore to have sex all the time. It's cooler to be strong and independent.”

Actor Ben Stiller is known for playing the funny man in many of his movies, but his recent movie leaves little to laugh about. Stiller stars in the movie “Greenberg” with Greta Gerwig, whose character gets an abortion after discovering she has an unwanted pregnancy. The problem with the film, however, is that the abortion is portrayed as no big deal.

On April 12, Daily Beast’s Stephen Farber approvingly wrote, “When she learns that she is pregnant as a result of a relationship that ended more than a month earlier, she decides to go to the hospital for an abortion, and she returns home without experiencing much pain or guilt.”

The skewed portrayal of Gerwig’s character is far from the truth. According to the National Right to Life, women who get abortions suffer from depression, hemorrhages, sterility, infections, and even death. Suicides can also occur afterwards.

The media simply cannot stop smearing the Catholic Church, especially Pope Benedict, over the alleged cases of sexual abuse. Huffington Post columnist Andy Ostroy was no exception in his April 7 article, “Can We Fire the Pope?” Ostroy blasted the Pope and called the church “diseased.”

Ostroy seemed to base most of his column on New York Times articles. One article reported that as Archbishop, Pope Benedict transferred a priest accused of sexual abuse. Another New York Times article also blamed the Pope for allowing a Wisconsin priest accused of sexual abuse to stay. Although this report is now in question, that didn’t seem to matter to Ostroy.

Even though the Pope hasn’t been proven guilty, Ostroy didn’t seem to understand that. “Perhaps most infuriating is how Church officials have vociferously defended the Pope, who they claim has been a harsh and outspoken critic of the ‘filth’ that infests the Church, citing him as an architect and promoter of reform.”

Former pastor and left-wing writer Brian D. McLaren has questioned “who is Jesus and why is he so important?” He has also pushed for a liberal agenda on homosexuality and stated it’s not a “black-and-white issue.”  So he shouldn’t be surprised that evangelical Christians disagree with him. But in an April 5 Huffington Post article, “Why Do Evangelicals Dislike Me So Much?”, McLaren tried to figure it out and ended up giving Evangelical Christians even more reasons to dislike him.

In the article, McLaren went out of his way to insult evangelicals. He first compared them to the infamous Milgram experiment at Yale University, in which authoritarian figures instructed people to administer supposedly dangerous high levels of electricity to other people, who turned out to be actors.

McLaren explained how, “In my opinion, multitudes of Christians find themselves in a real-life Milgram experiment these days. Their consciences are in conflict with their beloved religious authority figures on several key issues … ”

Jim Wallis is an author and is the founder of Sojurners magazine, and he’s a religious adviser to President Obama. The media often turn to him as a Christian voice. But Wallis is a hard-core left-winger who has made numerous outlandish statements while promoting his idea of “social justice.”

The liberal blogspot Huffington Post features Wallis as religion columnist and Wallis has taken the opportunity to push his left-wing agenda. In a March 18 column, “Pray for Immigration Reform,” Wallis lamented about “border walls” and complained about families being separated. He never looked into why illegal immigration can be hurtful to the economy or suggested immigrating legally.

But “social justice” is Wallis’ favorite topic and he recently has gotten into a feud with FOX’s Glenn Beck over it. Wallis espouses social justice as the way to end, “The attacks of poverty on vulnerable families and children, the attacks of hunger on entire communities, the attacks of economic inequities on hardworking people …”