Just the facts, ma'am.

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 19, 2003

Tim Graham at the Media Research Center has collected some of the more egregious specimens of anti-Catholic spin in the coverage of the Pope's anniversary. A sampler:

On Sunday's NBC Nightly News, reporter Dawna Friesen noted: "For some, the celebrations will be bittersweet. The Pope's conservative views on abortion, contraception, divorce, woman priests and homosexuality have alienated many Catholics as did the sex abuse scandals involving priests." (Friesen did turn next to a woman who felt reaffirmed to be at the celebrations.)

On ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked a largely liberal cast -- and former Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev -- to assess the Pope. He proposed to Father Thomas Reese, the editor of the liberal weekly America: "Many of the Pope's critics have a hard time reconciling his outspoken championing of human rights, of human dignity with what they see as his somewhat authoritarian, antiquated view of women and sexuality." The host did not ask why liberal Catholics see a conflict between advocating "human rights" and the rights of the unborn human.

Stephanopoulos then pressed Reese again from the left: "The Pope has held the line on women clergy, and this has made many of his critics say he simply doesn't get it when it comes to women." Reese agreed the Pope was "alienating women." Cokie Roberts, who was bumped from the program to make way for the male ex-Clinton aide, added her feelings: "You can feel very left out when you approach an institution that is completely male-dominated and hierarchical."

Exasperating. But you'd need a heart of stone not to laugh at the notion of Tweetie Stephanopoulos suggesting that the Pope "doesn't get it" when it comes to women.