CNN, Time Warner’s 24-hour cable news network, is not engaging in the type of responsible discourse Ted Turner dreamed up when e launched the channel. Instead, by inviting hate leaders like the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue on its programs — repeatedly — it is officially guilty of trafficking in vitriol and hate rhetoric.
We’re all for having reasoned debate. Mr. Donohue, sadly, uses bunk science, faulty logic, and a faith-based homophobia to draw his conclusions, and CNN is doing nobody any favors by giving him airtime. Merely countering his arguments with other guests who disagree is not enough. We don’t afford that privilege to KKK leaders. Nor should we for Donohue.
The only acceptable reason to invite Donohue — who is paid $372,501 a year to spread hate — on television is to interview him for a special called America’s Top 10 Haters. Nothing else.
This is no longer about offering up opposing sides to an argument, as journalism so often calls for. As we’ve said before, for the same reason white supremacists are not considered worthy of debating race issues, bigots like Donohue are not worthy of discussing issues of sexual orientation. By perpetuating his social corruption, CNN is no better than he.
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This man is defending child molesters with the defense of homophobia. Nobody, and no television network, would give credence to the argument that the Catholic Church’s child molestation problem is a white person problem, because the majority of priests doing the molesting are white. It’s as equally ridiculous. And yet Donohue says: “There’s a difference between a cause and effect, and somebody saying if there’s an over-representation … if there’s a cultural link you need to explore it.” Okay, then let’s explore the white problem.
Cam
The trouble is, they never EVER ask anybody to back up their claims. Just question him on WHERE he is getting his stats and figures from and his whole routine would crumble.
Andy
Just like Ted Bundy is a heterosexual problem?
Kieran
Anti-semites are rigorously banned from our airwaves, but Homophobes apparently are free to come on and spew venom and scurilous slander against gay people and it’s perfectly acceptable.
Lawrence
I just want to point out that all of the molesters were also priests and Catholics…maybe they should be looking at those problems as well…
Mark
CNN continues to lose credibility with their false argument that there are 2 extreme sides to every issue.
mk
This isn’t a CNN issue really. MSNBC is paying Pat Robertson to be one of their analysts. He is full of hate rhetoric, fake information, faulty arguments and bluster. MSNBC is providing Pat money, credibility and air time by employing him.
The US cable news networks want extreme people in their discussions to create drama.
Robert, NYC
Its not just CNN. Check out Bill Maher’s show. As much as I love Bill and his politics and I agree on almost everything he says, but he he too is guilty, though not intentionally I don’t think, of promoting the myth that in regard to the Catholic cult’s molestation scandal, that its a gay issue. He fails to mention that there were many girls abused by priests and other clerics, something that has been going on for two millenia. What Bill is doing is enabling the ilk of bigots like Donohue et al. The media should engage qualified experts, psychiatrists recommended by the AMA to present the evidence on pedophilia. Nobody takes any responsibility in reporting the facts let alone the truth. Bill Maher should know better.
terrwill
Donahue is nothing more than a vile hate monkey.He was claiming that Pope Benadick (aka the boy nazi) couldn’t have been involved in the coverup because the kiddie diddling at the deaf school was done in the 1950’s. Yet one of the victims is 38 years old. Guess that means the church has a new problem to deal with: sperm molesting!!
Robert, NYC
Terrwill, whether the Vatican douchebag knew or didn’t know about the 50’s scandal, the fact of the matter is, he DID know of other molestations going on when he was Cardinal in Germany, that went on for decades. This cult is in big denial and his clergy defending him is abominable. They’re all a bunch of psychopathic liars. The reputation of their cult is more important than the irreparable harm its done to thousands of its victims. All of the anti-equality invectives this cult uses against us is just a distraction, a scapegoating of the serious problem of sexual abuse that its never really addressed in totality. Weeding out gay seminarians or priests to resolve it is futile. He has yet to address how he’s going to weed out those who abuse girls, not one word out of him. Donohue is only mimicking the Vatican statement that pedophilia = homosexuality.
Robert, NYC
Terrwill, whether the Vatican douchebag knew or didn’t know about the 50’s scandal, the fact of the matter is, he DID know of other molestations going on when he was Cardinal in Germany, that went on for decades. This cult is in big denial and his clergy defending him is abominable. They’re all a bunch of psychopathic liars. The reputation of their cult is more important than the irreparable harm its done to thousands of its victims. All of the anti-equality invectives this cult uses against us is just a distraction, a scapegoating of the serious problem of sexual abuse that its never really addressed in totality. Weeding out gay seminarians or priests to resolve it is futile. He has yet to address how he’s going to weed out those who abuse girls, not one word out of him. Donohue is only mimicking the Vatican statement that pedophilia = homosexuality. Had this been an entirely heterosexual phenomenon, I doubt if the sexual orientation of the offenders would have been questioned or denigrated, in spite of the heinous acts perpetrated against their victims.
B
No. 4 · Lawrence wrote, “I just want to point out that all of the molesters were also priests and Catholics…maybe they should be looking at those problems as well…”
… I once read an article, written by a gay therapist, when the sex scandal first became public, in which the therapist, who had treated a number of priests, claimed that about 1/2 of them are gay. The primary reason is that in heavily Catholic cultures, the only acceptable reason to avoid getting married was to become a priest, but in addition people used to enter seminaries at a very young age (13 or so), so they went through adolescence in a sexually repressive environment that warped a lot of these priests to be. This is less true today (people tend to be a lot older when they enter a seminary). While there are a lot of gay priests, there’s also evidence (see below) that child molesters who go after boys are roughly twice as likely to be straight than gay in their adult attractions (for those that have one).
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html has good summary of the research about child molesters and sexual orientation. It pretty well shows that Donohue’s claims are simply false. In one study discussed (Marshall et al., Behaviour Research and Therapy, 26, 383-391 [1988]), they looked at 21 sex offenders who had molested males under the age of 16, and measured their response to pictures of male nudes versus female nudes. Twice as many of these offenders were turned on more by pictures of females than by pictures of males. Meanwhile there is no evidence that the rate of sexual offenses has anything to do with sexual orientation.
Also, Donohue seems to be completely silent on whether or not priests have easier access to boys compared to girls. Some offenders don’t really care what the sex of their victims is as their attraction is based mostly on age.
Where CNN deserves particular criticism is that, while billed as a discussion with two points of view, the person providing the other point of view was given a tiny fraction of the time that Donahue was given, and didn’t even appear on camera, at least not in the video clip.
ewe
I have never considered Rick Sanchez a journalist. He is not objective. Bill Donahue is obsessed with gay men and what they do in their beds. He’s so simple to diagnose.
Robert, NYC
B, No. 11….Actually, Donohue is well aware that priests did in fact have easier access to boys because there were more boys at their disposal than girls. That said, he still dismisses the fact that straight priests who abused girls were and are part of the problem. He appeared on the Lionel show on Air America a couple of years ago and actually said that homosexuality = pedophilia and made an outrageous statement that pedophilia is not as high among the straight population. This is a man who holds a Ph.D. in sociology yet refutes the American Psychiatric Association’s view to the contrary. He’s in deep denial for sure. His obsession with homosexuality, in fact the roman cult in general, is quite revealing. Now, I wonder had this been a totally heterosexual phenomenon would the cult have denigrated, villified and discriminated the heterosexual orientation of the perpetrators in quite the same way it has towards gays? Would it have issued a directive to “weed out”, the hetero pedophiles from the seminaries and if so, what would be the criterion based on psychological evaluation prior to entry into the religious life? Its been very silent on the hetero component in all this. Nobody is questioning it, not even the psychopath in the Vatican.
Tyrone
Everybody knows that the condition of America horrible financial problem didn’t start with President Obama! The Tea Party members also know that! But it does not stop them and the media from blaming President Obama! It is almost like these people choose to forget what President G.W Bush did to the country! The Tea Party members also choose to forget that the former Governor Sarah Palin is a quitter and that she is also one of the dumpiest politician in the country! Sarah Palin is a leader of the Tea Party movement! A woman that couldn’t keep her eyes on her 13 year olds daughter that was having sex in her home. Her child went on to become a teen mother at 16 years old! Then the daughter turns around and tell others don’t have sex or just be responsible! Something she was not! The media has also taken on the republicans spends and mentality! The mostly white pundits never asked why or how did you get to that conclusion! They just adopt the conclusion! The mostly white pundit give their opinion more so then ever under President Obama. More polls are quoted and repeated language like REAL AMERICANS” or THE AMERICANS PEOPLE think this or that is use by the media and the republican party over and over! In NJ resident voted in a Republican Governor and are paying the price! He started out attacking teachers and children. Then turn around and gave his friends $90,000 to $100,000 jobs. doubling those high price jobs under the former governor 17 people had job in that area 37 under the republicans Governor!