Since when is the media so interested in keeping America abreast of the latest news coming out of Ireland? A commission in Ireland just released a report detailing awful abuse of children who attended Catholic schools "from the 1930's to the 1990's, when the last of the institutions closed." And what's ensued is practically an all-out media frenzy.
The AP, Reuters, the New York Times, the LA Times, Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and many others are all over the story. At Google news, the story returns "about 1,531" results.
Yes, the stories of abuse are quite troubling, but it sure seems that the media is singling out the Catholic Church's misdeeds - again.
Today - not decades ago - there is egregious abuse happening with far-greater occurrence in our nation's schools. Yet where's the coverage?
For example, as we reported a couple weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times published an explosive and sickening front-page investigation revealing that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD, the country's second largest school district, by the way) "repeatedly" returned teachers and aides credibly accused of child molestation back to classrooms, and these individuals then molested children again. The article outlined mind-blowing indifference and incompetence by LAUSD.
How did the rest of the national media respond to the Times' jaw-dropping story? A search at Google news shows the story was almost completely ignored. Even many local media outlets in L.A. didn't cover the story.
Yet, two weeks later, we have a media going wild over decades-old episodes of abuse in a country across the ocean and thousands of miles away.
Like I've said before: When it comes to the awful abuse of children, it sure seems like the national media doesn't get too worked up unless the words 'Cardinal,' 'bishop,' 'nun,' or 'priest' is in someone's job title.
Double standard? Absolutely.
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Previous: "Not the Catholic Church? (III): L.A. School District 'Repeatedly' Returned Child Molesters to the Classroom; Where's the MSM?" and "Not the Catholic Church ? MSM Mum About Huge L.A. School Sex Abuse Scandal"
See also: TheMediaReport.com: "Los Angeles Times: Clergy Abuse and School Abuse"
—Dave Pierre is the creator of TheMediaReport.com and a contributor to NewsBusters.
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Let's Focus on America, Shall We?
May 21, 2009 - 22:42 ET by BondPlainBondBad, Bad Teacher.com
Like the stories about how
May 22, 2009 - 05:29 ET by motherbeltLike the stories about how the Catholic Church is "out of step" with its members on the subject of abortion or priestly celibacy, I can't comment on these stories any more without repeating myself ad nauseam (even to me).
At this point, this is truly an obsession. They need help.
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
Maybe it's just me
May 22, 2009 - 08:00 ET by richb313Maybe it's just me. Maybe I am too sensitive. Maybe years of growing up hearing all sorts of Catholic Bashing such as Papist and the like have made me too eager to hear things that really are not there but I do not think so. In the past few years the amount of anti-Catholic stories and the amount of anti-Catholic hate in the form of TV shows, Movies, News Reports etc has risen to an all time high.
The reports from Ireland are really nothing new. State run reformatories in the UK and Ireland were just as bad. It is really an Institutional Problem over there and not as much a problem of the church. There is no excuse and the church should have looked out for the children in thier charge but they might have actually been worse off in a State run Institution. Abuse in the UK and Ireland was rampant in both State and Church run schools and orphanages. To report the tragic cases of abuse without any historical context is not to tell the truth. It is a lie of omission one of the worse forms of deciet. The lie of omission is bad because the lie has truth at it's core. It is designed to paint an incomplete picture and is the favorite of the Media today.
So here I sit awash in anti-Catholic propoganda beamed at me daily on the web and TV. Am I being too sensitive. Am I being perhaps a little paranoid? You tell me.
Right on.
May 22, 2009 - 09:47 ET by Dave Pierre"Am I being too sensitive? Am I being perhaps a little paranoid? You tell me."
No, not at all. I think you're exactly right.
The media doesn't care about context or perspective. It just loves to bash the Catholic Church.
You and I can clearly see what the media is doing. But I doubt that the regular viewer/reader sees what the media's agenda really is.
The anti-Catholicism in the media is undoubtedly real.
It's a bleak report
May 22, 2009 - 08:43 ET by moderncommentaries83It's a bleak report, to be certain.
Not a single Catholic blog that I've read is anything but disappointed and saddened by this. Same for me.
But, of course, the fact that these abusers were not maintaining their vows (just as the sex abusers didn't), and really make up a small, small percentage of the billions of Catholics throughout the world for the past two millenia, won't matter.
Since most of, if not all, the abusers - and those who covered for them - are dead, how do you prosecute them? How do you punish members of the orders(s) and the Church living today, born long after the abuse took place, and call it justice? You don't, but somebody will try. I was born in 1983, not 1883. I converted to Catholicism in 2005 because I believe in the teachings of the Church - not the mistakes of its members.
It seems whenever a group - like Call to Action or Voice of the Faithful - or politicians egregiously flout Church teaching, they're noble rebels fighting the good fight. No matter what harm they cause people.
But when these abusers egregiously violate Church teaching (i.e., what's written in the Catechism, in black and white), the Church is suddenly awful.
Abuse exists in a great deal of institutions. There was - in the Southwest or California, I believe - a home for the mentally disabled that made residents engage in fights and wrestling matches. How many stories of senior abuse at nursing homes have we heard over the decades? What about schools - where violence and sexual abuse is perpetrated not only by students, but teachers, too?
And the fact is that, in the wake of the sex abuse revelations, Catholic Churches and dioceses have implemented programs and rules to prevent it from happening again. I'm betting the same will happen in Ireland - assuming, of course, those institutions are even open any more to make changes - and anywhere else.
You need look no further than the flourishing of the Church (the underground, you'll-get-killed-if-you-get-caught-there Church) in China than to see there's much mroe to the Catholic faith than these sad stories.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
I too found it odd that
May 22, 2009 - 09:00 ET by QueenMumI too found it odd that this was considered "news". Maybe it was meant to coincide with the release of "Angels and Demons". Or maybe to discredit the Notre Dame protests. May as well put on a full court press.
P.S. One of our local radio station talkers asked people to call in to share stories of "abuse" they suffered while under the tutelage of Catholic nuns. Ah, such wonderful memories. The libs would label it torture, I'm sure. We called it discipline. And if you were disciplined by Sister Mary Budweiser once or twice, you learned not to misbehave again. And even if you weren't the one being disciplined, Sister managed to put the fear of God in you so you knew better than to try anything.
GO CAVS!!!!!
Urgent...all media outlets
May 22, 2009 - 16:36 ET by acumenJudas betrays Christ!