The Insincere Media Hit Job on the Catholic Church
Written by Selwyn Duke
Friday, 02 April 2010 10:00
jbs.org
Sexual abuse is always a scandal, but there is only one unique scandal in the recent coverage of the Catholic Church. And those responsible don’t wear clerical collars.
It’s hard to say when the media became so concerned about the sexual abuse of youth, but I do have the time frame narrowed down just a bit. It obviously was some time after their support of boy-lover Congressman Gerry Studds, the pedophile ring disguised as a research team known as the Kinsey Institute, and Safe Schools Perv . . . I mean, Czar, Kevin Jennings. But I guess what matters is that all the ink they’re devoting to the Catholic Church scandal shows that they care now, at least as much as their continual harping on America’s antebellum sins means they care about slavery.
If you’re wondering about my tone, I’m not minimizing the scandal in question. I don’t say there’s no “there” there. What I am saying is that the media is maximizing it and that there isn’t as much there as the molestation they pass off as reportage leads one to believe. I’m also saying that, sadly, the “there” today is everywhere.
Let me be clear: I’m almost medieval in my approach to criminal-justice. In my world, those who committed sexual crimes against youth would learn in this world why they would have been better off if a great millstone had been tied around their necks and they had been thrown into the sea. And I would apply this across-the-board. Yet this cannot be said of the media at large.
Why do I say this? Because the media will ignore the sexual abuse of youth when it’s committed by their fellow travelers and favored institutions. As to this, there are not only the examples in my first paragraph, there’s also the American government-school system, where, apparently, more than just students’ minds are molested. As to this, James Hudnall wrote at BigJournalism.com:
In 2004, Hofstra University professor Dr. Carol Shakeshaft published a report for the United States Department of Education titled “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature.” It was presented to Congress as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. In it, Shakeshaft stated:
As a group, these studies present a wide range of estimates of the percentage of U.S. students subject to sexual misconduct by school staff and vary from 3.7 to 50.3 percent. Because of its carefully drawn sample and survey methodology, the AAUW report that nearly 9.6 percent of students are targets of educator sexual misconduct sometime during their school career presents the most accurate data available at this time.
According to a study she did of abuse complaints against Catholic priests over a five decade period she concluded that “…the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”
And what does this school abuse mean in terms of raw numbers? As I wrote just recently, an AP investigation reported on “a Congress-mandated study placing the number of students sexually abused by an education worker at some point between kindergarten and 12th grade at 4.5 million.”
Moreover, whatever the figures, the fact is that virtually everything the media condemn the Catholic Church for the schools are guilty of as well. As I also wrote in my piece, “The Scandal Driving the Church Sex Scandal”:
Another similarity is the cover-up by school officials, who, as stated earlier, were motivated by the same priorities as the most remiss bishop: a desire to avoid embarrassment, scandal, and punitive court judgments. As an example, the AP presents the story of Gary Lindsey, an Iowa teacher who was fired from his first job for sexual misconduct but then allowed to work elsewhere for about thirty more years. During these decades, Lindsey transgressed against other students, dodging the hangman every time with the complicity of school administration. And his is no isolated case. In fact, the practice of transferring sexual predators is so common that it has become known as "passing the trash," and the abusers have been dubbed "mobile molesters."
Despite this, the Lamestream media behave as if the Catholic Church has a monopoly on sexual abuse. They thus have failed to do their job and have, as is their wont, twisted the public’s conception of reality. This matrix of lies has become people’s default assumptions; consequently, when commentators such as me try to administer a pound of cure, we’re seen as the spin doctors. I have for this reason received responses to my defenses of the Catholic Church such as, “You’re trying to divert the issue! You want to excuse bad behavior by saying the other guy is just as bad.” Am I now? OK, it’s time for a bit more perspective.
Let’s say you have a child in a government school, and, while he was able to dodge the sexual predators, he’s among a group of students caught cheating on a test. Now let’s say the school administration singles him out for punishment. For weeks he is given detention, is forced to stand before his class and be scorned and is ostracized. But while he pays his steep price, his partners in crime are allowed to cheat further with impunity.
Now, I’m sure the recalcitrant Church critics would say, “Well, it’s my child who’s the focus right now, and I wouldn’t want to muddy the waters by interfering with his persecution.” I’m sure they’d be wholly incurious about why he was singled out for torment. As for us more earthy types, however, I think we might march into the school and say, “Look, I know my son did wrong and deserves punishment, but why are those guilty of the same transgression treated with kid gloves?” And if we were admonished to stop “diverting the issue” and “excusing bad behavior,” I think we’d want to provide an unsolicited nose job — whether or not it was covered under ObamaCare.
Be under no illusions: The Catholic Church is being singled out for largely the same reason why the Tea Parties and Boy Scouts are placed in the crosshairs. It’s the same reason why talk radio is targeted with the Fairness Doctrine while the Lamestream media’s monolithic ideological nature is ignored. It’s that it is a traditionalist institution. The media absolutely despise the Catholic Church’s teachings, especially those on sexuality, the all-male priesthood and abortion.
And this brings me back to my original point. With the media’s support for abortion, corruptive sex education in schools and in the Girl Scouts, and every single civilization-rending ism, they aren’t ones to throw stones. For it’s hard to believe they care about kids at all.
Selwyn Duke is a columnist and public speaker whose work has been published widely online and in print, on both the local and national levels. He has been featured on the Rush Limbaugh Show, at WorldNetDaily.com, in American Conservative magazine, is a contributor to AmericanThinker.com and appears regularly as a guest on the award-winning, nationally-syndicated Michael Savage Show. Visit his Website. |
