Jim Frederick

In the aftermath of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, CBS has made up its mind about Catholicism: the Church is in crisis and must be reformed! Whereas Martin Luther tacked his theses on the Wittenberg church door, however, CBS opted to ensure its stab at church reformation would go largely unnoticed by including the segment on Saturday's CBS This Morning. [Video below. MP3 audio here.]

To discuss this topic, CBS anchor Anthony Mason brought in three liberals: Jim Frederick of Time Magazine, the Rev. Paul Raushenbush of the Huffington Post -- the great-grandson of Baptist minister and Social Gospel champion Walter Rauschenbusch -- and Sister Maureen Fiedler, who hosts her own public radio show. All three agreed with the premise that the Catholic Church needs to change. If the message wasn’t clear enough, a screen behind the guests read “Catholic Church in Crisis” (with no question mark) and the chyron read “Catholic Church in Crisis: Is the Vatican Capable of Reform?”

Although Chelsea Clinton still uses her NBC News Special Correspondent title when she puts her byline on Daily Beast articles, her interview with Time magazine leaves the strong sense there is no NBC News future for Special Chelsea. The entire hiring stunt reeked of Bill-and-Hillary favor-seeking.

Time’s Jim Frederick declared, “So you currently work for NBC and you’re studying for a PhD.” Chelsea left NBC out of her answer: “Well, thankfully, I’m no longer studying.  I’m slogging away on my dissertation.” When he asked where she saw herself in five years, the news business was nowhere in there: