Religion

The media’s tendency to use the Pope to criticize Republican candidates and officials was on display Wednesday afternoon as MSNBC’s Live with Thomas Roberts and Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect took shots at the 2016 GOP presidential field and, specifically, Catholics Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum (in the case of the latter show) for opposing Pope Francis’s upcoming encyclical on global warming.

Delia Gallagher touted Pope Francis's upcoming encyclical on the environment on Wednesday's Wolf program on CNN by claiming how "Church leaders say that this is the first time the release of a papal encyclical has been so anticipated." Gallagher spotlighted an "epic theatrical trailer for the Pope's words" from an environmentalist group in Brazil," and hyped that "with the Pope's popularity, this…

With the Vatican reportedly set to release a document soon which, among other things, holds that climate change is a manmade phenomenon, MSNBC host Chris Matthews devoted an entire segment which all but suggested that not only are conservative Republicans "science deniers," they're anti-Catholic. But in the midst of all that, Matthews also found room to slam Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) as "…

“Headlines can mislead,” UNC sociology professor Charles Kurzman and Duke University expert on terrorism David Schanze warned In Tuesday’s New York Times. Yes, and the Times should keep that in mind. Their op-ed entitled, “The Other Terror Threat” warned that Americans shouldn’t be afraid of radical Muslims, but should be afraid instead of “the main terrorist threat” –  “right-wing extremists.”

Jeffrey Tayler of The Atlantic treated religious belief as a mental illness in a Sunday column for the far-left website Salon, which targeted Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for "imposing your obscurantist dogma on impressionable young minds" – specifically, "the bizarre Catholic cult." Tayler made no secret of his anti-Catholic bigotry when he slammed the supposed "pedophile pulpiteers of…

In a Friday column, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank again misquoted a conservative, where he attacked pro-lifers for not being "on the right side of logic" for opposing abortion, but not supporting "contraceptives [which] would seriously reduce abortions." Milbank cited Americans United for Life's Charmaine Yoest, who supposedly stated, "'I haven't seen anything' to convince her that more…

On Sunday's MediaBuzz on Fox News, former CNN correspondent Lola Ogunnaike slammed the reaction of many conservatives to the sexual abuse scandal surrounding the Duggar family. Host Howard Kurtz wondered if "some conservative commentators going easy on the family, because it's somebody who is seen as on their side." Ogunnaike replied, "Absolutely. I think that if this family was a group of…

On Thursday, the Associated Press's Will Weissert demonstrated that the ignorance of our nation's founding documents exhibited by Meredith Shiner at Yahoo Politics in March is not isolated to her. Readers may recall that Shiner, reacting to Ted Cruz's presidential announcement speech, tweeted: "Bizarre to talk about how rights are God-made and not man-made in your speech announcing a POTUS bid?…

CNN's Chris Cuomo pressed Pam Geller on Thursday's New Day over her leadership of "a group that does take shots at Islam on a regular basis." Cuomo underlined that "you can show the cartoon. People have the equal right to criticize your showing the cartoon as an overt provocation of a religion." He also wondered,  "Why go slight for slight with the Muslims?" The anchor later asserted, "It just…

Foreign Affairs is "a multiplatform media organization with a print magazine, a website, a mobile site, various apps and social media feeds, an event business, and more." It is published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an influential organization which has caught flak for decades, predominantly from the right, for undermining and misrepresenting U.S. interests. One doesn't have to be…

Alex Wagner took the unusual step of running to the defense of Pope Francis on her MSNBC program on Wednesday. Wagner blasted Rick Santorum for asserting that the Catholic Church  was "probably...better off leaving science to the scientists," especially on the controversial issue of climate change. She pointed out that the Pope "has a master's degree in chemistry," and therefore, has more "cred"…

On Sunday, HBO's John Oliver gave the latest evidence that the last acceptable prejudice is bigotry against Christianity, especially anti-Catholicism. Oliver blasted the Vatican secretary of state's "defeat for humanity" condemnation of Ireland's vote that legalized same-sex marriage: "Okay, settle down a little, Catholic Church. Remember, you're an organization whose victories for humanity…

On Friday, Jessica Gresko at the Associated Press reported on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board of directors' Thursday vote to "suspend issue-oriented advertisements until the end of the year." Though they wouldn't admit it, the board's move was obviously a reaction to Pamela Geller's request to post an ad from her American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) which included a…

Wrapping up a live interview with Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Friday’s MSNBC Live, anchor Thomas Roberts invited the left-wing congressional leader to attack Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio: “...we have the sound from the interview that Marco Rubio gave, where he painted a pretty broad brush in a characterization about those for and against marriage equality.…