Bozell: Media Must Stop Bogus Reports about the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict

April 12th, 2010 6:34 PM

Editor's Note: What follows is a statement Mr. Bozell released earlier today wherein he declared the intentional disparaging and false reporting of the Catholic Church and its leader Pope Benedict XVI an atrocity, and demanded the media immediately end their exaggerations:

The Catholic Church has always endured unfair characterizations from the left-wing media, but the most recent and phony ‘news’ coverage of the sexual abuse scandal has reached a new and alarming low. 

Last week dozens of news outlets – including the Associated Press, Reuters, Washington Post, New York Times CBS, MSNBC– reported that the abuse scandal is ‘widening.’ That is absolutely and unequivocally false. The scandal isn’t growing.  As Catholic League President Bill Donohue aptly noted, citing evidence from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, abuse is shrinking in the United States, with an even more rapid decline over the last five years.

Any credible journalist would have done his or her research before reporting a fallacy of this magnitude.  And any other religious institution that was targeted in this unconscionable fashion would have been rescued by the same liberal media that claims to be objective. 

The liberal media must immediately stop poisoning their readers and viewers with these false claims and apologize to the Catholic Church’s leaders and the millions of Americans who are proud of their Catholic faith.

Click here for the full press release.