(International) Media Bias Against Christianity
Catholic League presents several examples of media bias against Christians in the United States, mainly around sex abuse scandals. US media is also widely in use in Europe.
We thank Catholic League for their reports: March 24, 2010: MEDIA MOSTLY IGNORE SEX ABUSE DATA Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the way the media are reacting to the 2009 annual report on priestly sexual abuse that was just released by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: There was a 36 percent decline in allegations of clergy sexual abuse between 2008 and 2009. As usual, most of the alleged offenders are either dead and buried, have already been thrown out of the priesthood, or are missing. There were six allegations made in 2009 involving minors. Six. As always, males are the preferred target. The report gave an age breakdown but did not mention the significant role played by homosexuals. Media reports never mentioned it either. Here's how the media responded. AP ran a story of 864 words, but most newspapers ignored it: only two—the Asbury Park Press and the News Journal Wilmington—decided to run it. The Washington Post did a responsible job by covering it in 505 words. The St. Paul Pioneer Press also offered a decent summary. By contrast, the New York Times ran a 92-word article. The Chicago Tribune did much the same. None of the other big dailies—from the Catholic-bashing Boston Globe to the reliably anti-Catholic Los Angeles Times—even bothered to mention it. NPR gave it short mention, but the broadcast and cable stations ignored it. It's all so predictable. Bad news about the Catholic Church is front-page news, but good news goes largely ignored. To those who say it's no different with any other group, consider this. The AP reports today that a rabbi accused of raping a 7-year-old girl in New York a decade ago was arrested yesterday outside his Arizona synagogue. Aside from a very brief article in the New York Daily News, not a single newspaper in New York, Arizona—or anywhere else—bothered to print it.March 9, 2010: MEDIA BIAS ON RELIGIOUS COVERAGE Catholic League president Bill Donohue offers several examples of media bias drawn from today’s newspapers: Orthodox Rabbi Baruch Lebovits was found guilty yesterday on eight counts of sexually abusing a 16-year old boy in Brooklyn. When a Catholic priest is accused of embezzlement—never mind sexual abuse—it typically merits a front-page story in the New York Daily News and the New York Post; the New York Times usually places such stories in a less prominent spot. On Rabbi Lebovits, the Daily News ran a 334-word story on p. 15; the Post put a 143-word piece on p. 6; and the Times ignored it altogether. The New York Times ran another lengthy story today about Charles Pellegrino, author of a book on Hiroshima that has been withdrawn by his publisher over concerns that Pellegrino used fraudulent sources and has been less than candid about his credentials and other matters. Both today’s story, and the one from March 2, discuss some of Pellegrino’s other writings, but neither mentions a book he co-wrote, The Jesus Family Tomb, that was widely shown to be a hoax: the book said there was evidence of a tomb housing the remains of Jesus and his family. Regarding the Muslim murder of Christians in Nigeria, we found 34 headlines citing “religious” violence; four mentioned “Christian-Muslim violence”; and only one, The Times (of London), said anything like “Rampaging Muslim Gangs Trap Christian Victims in Nets.” None of this is by accident, and none of it is indicative of a cabal. It’s all a reflection of a deep-seated anti-Catholic animus on the part of many elites. And these examples are all drawn from just today’s news stories. (Reports by Catholic League USA)