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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tommaso who wrote (1304)	3/9/2001 7:03:13 PM
From: excardog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

Ted Turner apologizes for "Jesus freaks" comment By Ian Simpson NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - Outspoken U.S. media mogul Ted Turner apologized on Friday for calling Catholic employees ``Jesus freaks'' for wearing ashes to mark Ash Wednesday. The comment last week from Turner, dubbed ``The Mouth of the South'' for his free-wheeling comments over the years, had outraged Christian groups. ``I apologize to all Christians for my comment about Catholics wearing ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday,'' Turner, the founder of the Cable News Network and vice chairman of AOL Time Warner Inc.(NYSE:AOL - news) , said in a statement. ``I do not believe in any form of prejudice or discrimination, especially religious intolerance.'' Turner, 62, made his comment on Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent, before about 300 people on Feb. 28 at CNN's offices in Washington. Noticing several staffers had ashes on their foreheads to mark the religious holiday, Turner reportedly stared at them and said, ``I realized you're just Jesus freaks. Shouldn't you guys be working for (rival network) Fox?'' The gaffe was reported by Fox News, a unit of News Corp. Ltd. (Australia:NCP.AX - news), on Tuesday. Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter, celebrated by Christians to mark Jesus Christ's resurrection. The comment from Turner, who once said Christianity was ``for losers,'' had drawn fire from Christian groups. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said Turner had ``a anti-Christian bias that runs deep in his bones,'' according to the New York Post newspaper. The Wall Street Journal said on Friday in its Review & Outlook column that Turner's comment was part of a ``larger revisionism'' that portrayed churches, mosques and synagogues as ``incipient threats to the American way of life.'' Asked about Turner's apology, Donohue said in a statement that the Catholic League would ``bite our lip and drop the issue, skeptical though we are.'' Turner is noted for his shoot-from-the-lip comments over the years. Among them, he said the 1997 mass suicide in which 30 members of the Heaven's Gate cult killed themselves was ``a good way to get rid of a few nuts.''