Topic: CNSNews.com
The Media Research Center's practice of Heathering -- berating and shunning conservatives who fail to march in total lockstep with the right-wing agenda -- gets a big expansion by CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey, who not only expands it to religion but targets one of the most prominent Catholic officials in America.
From Jeffrey's Aug. 8 CNS article:
President Barack Obama, who is moving ahead with a regulation that forces observant American Catholics to act against their consciences and the teachings of their faith, will be one of the keynote speakers at an Oct. 18 white-tie fundraiser hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The fundraiser—the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner--will benefit the foundation, which Cardinal Dolan serves as board president. The foundation's website says it provides funding “for healthcare causes.”
Al Smith, a three-term governor of New York, became the first Catholic presidential candidate in U.S. history when the Democratic Party nominated him in 1928.
Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts determined that Catholic hospitals in that state would be required to distribute Plan B abortion pills to rape victims, will join Obama as a keynote speaker at the white-tie dinner.
It takes some chutzpah -- to mix religious metaphors -- to suggest that the archbishop of New York is failing at being a Catholic.
In addition to the Heathering, Jeffrey starts deviating from the facts -- for instance, he falsely claims above that Plan B is an "abortion pill." He also claims that Obama is "outspokenly and unambiguously pro-abortion," refusing to acknowledge the fact that favoring abortion rights does not equal "pro-abortion."
Jeffrey also misleads with this statement:
In Illinois in 2001, Obama was the only state senator to speak on the senate floor against legislation that would have simply said a born baby is a “person,” a “human being,” a “child,” and an “individual” and thus entitled under the 14th Amendment to equal protection of the law.
In fact, the bill is not as "simple" as Jeffrey claims. Jeffrey is referring to a "born alive" bill, which would have defined any aborted fetus that showed signs of life as a "born alive infant" entitled to legal protection, even if doctors believe it could not survive. Critics said that the bill could have been used to challenge Roe v. Wade. Obama specifically said on the Illinois senate floor regarding the 2001 bill that it "would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an antiabortion statute."
So not only is Jeffrey bashing a Catholic bishop for not being Catholic enough, he's being dishonest.
Jeffrey ramped up his dishonestly by waiting until the 27th paragraph of his article to let an archdiocese spokesman explain that "It is the tradition of the Smith dinner to invite the presidential candidates in the presidential election years in the spirit of nonpartisanship, good humor and good fellowship."
Jeffrey is not only an inflexible Catholic, he's a dishonest reporter. Will he confess his sin at confession time and seek forgiveness for his dishonesty?
