FLASHBACK: The Liberal Media’s Slanted Farewell to Pope John Paul II

March 31st, 2024 10:06 AM

After Pope John Paul II died 19 years ago this week, liberal journalists praised his “charisma” and “magnetism” but rejected what they characterized as his “extremely conservative” policies, as if long-standing Catholic Church doctrines were merely one Pope’s personal opinions that could be discarded on a whim.

Why the Prevalence of JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theories?

January 13th, 2023 6:38 PM

WASHINGTON -- I am engaged in reading a very fine book by my colleague, Paul Kengor. It was written six years ago, so do not feel bad if you missed it. You still have time. It is called “A Pope and a President.” It covers the lives of John Paul II and Ronald Reagan, and, as its coverage is chronological, I just read its treatment of the assassination of President John Kennedy. This will be the…

JFK, Reagan and Biden

March 31st, 2022 11:35 AM

President Biden’s speech from Warsaw Saturday night, reminded me of two previous presidents who delivered speeches confronting the autocracy that was then the Soviet Union and is now Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, a man Biden has rightly called a war criminal. On June 26, 1963, Kennedy spoke before the Berlin Wall which the Soviets had erected to stem the flow of Berliners out of the communist…

Midler Defends Sinead O'Connor’s Pope-Tearing On SNL: ‘She Was Right’

Culture
May 20th, 2021 4:55 PM

How relevant is Bette Midler? She’s got a hot take on one of the most controversial incidents  … of 1992. Midler praised Irish Singer Sinead O’Connor in a recent Twitter post, saying “she was right about...everything.” The Hocus Pocus witch was referring to O'Connor's infamous tearing of an image of Pope John Paul II during her live Saturday Night Live performance, which many…

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Pierce Uses Pope’s Congressional Speech to Bash Cruz, Conservatives

September 25th, 2015 12:00 AM
Liberal Esquire political columnist Charles Pierce, formerly with the Boston Globe, joined MSNBC’s All In on Thursday during live coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to New York City and used the occasion of the Pope’s speech hours earlier before Congress to lash out at Ted Cruz and conservatives for not endorsing climate change or other liberal social issues as does the Pontiff. 
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Matthews Slams 'Fragile' Benedict; Williams Hypes Chris's 'Patriotism'

September 23rd, 2015 8:15 PM
Joining Brian Williams for his second day back anchoring MSNBC’s coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to the United States on Wednesday afternoon, Catholic and Hardball host Chris Matthews blasted Francis’s predecessor Pope Benedict XVI for being “so fragile and removed” and possessing a “weakness” and “coldness” that Francis does not have. The disgraced former NBC Nightly News anchor gushed over…

Former Obama Official: 'Can Gay Marriage Defeat the Islamic State?'

June 30th, 2015 2:46 PM
In a column at ForeignPolicy.com, a former Obama administration defense official who "served as a counselor to the U.S. defense undersecretary for policy from 2009 to 2011" has asked: "Can Gay Marriage Defeat the Islamic State?" Rosa Brooks, who "is a law professor at Georgetown University," is serious. Her earnestness and deep ignorance are especially troubling, because it's clear that there…

Holy Smoke: Did Williams Lie About Meeting Pope John Paul II?!

February 12th, 2015 6:51 PM
Did Brian Williams repeatedly lie about a meeting with the pope?
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TIME's 'Person of the Year' Angers Supporters of Ferguson Protesters

December 10th, 2014 6:27 PM
Every December, the people at TIME magazine choose the “Person of the Year,” who is described as “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.” Two of the candidates for the 2014 honor were: the Ferguson, Missouri, protesters, “who took to the streets ... following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-…

NPR Spins: 'Vehement Hardliners' Vs. 'Progressives' at Vatican Meeting

October 6th, 2014 1:19 PM
NPR's Sylvia Poggioli promoted the cause of dissenters inside the Catholic Church on Sunday's Weekend Edition, as she covered the beginning of special meeting of bishops at the Vatican. She featured seven soundbites from four such dissenters (and didn't identify three of them as such), and none from orthodox Catholics. The correspondent also played up the "vehement response" from five cardinals…

Do You Agree, Brian? Williams Says Shevardnadze 'Admitted That Too Muc

July 8th, 2014 8:32 PM
On Monday evening's NBC Nightly News, host Brian Williams used a perhaps revealing verb to describe a belief held by former Soviet foreign minister and Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze, who died on Monday at 86. It would be good to look back and learn how Shevardnadze came to say what he said a decade ago before getting to how Williams framed it. As reported in Doug Martin's obituary at…

CNN: 'Climate Change Deniers Aren't Listening to Scientists...Not Read

May 21st, 2014 6:14 PM
Carol Costello and her two clerical guests slammed "climate change deniers" on Wednesday's CNN Newsroom. Costello pointed out a recent sarcastic Tweet by Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak on the climate change issue that "sparked a firestorm," and spotlighted how "religious leaders are more than concerned about statements like that. They're now battling climate change deniers on moral grounds…

Hours Before John Paul II's Canonization, Networks Hype Priest Sex Abu

April 28th, 2014 7:57 PM
ABC, CBS, and NBC spotlighted the issue of child sex abuse by priests on their Saturday morning and evening newscasts – twenty-four hours or less before the Catholic Church canonized Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. CBS and NBC both uncritically turned to the president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), but didn't mention her controversial affiliations with prominent anti…

Daily Beast: Let's Look at the 'Seedy Side of Sainthood

April 17th, 2014 3:06 PM
Promising a look at the "seedy side of sainthood," Daily Beast Vatican correspondent Barbie Latza Nadeau hyped the concerns of "critics [who] say the two popes were pushed through to sainthood without a thorough vetting." Latza Nadeau's story comes 10 days before the canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II and, perhaps more importantly, on Holy Thursday, arguably a stick in the eye…