Bill Donohue Speaks His Mind: “Silence Others”
Bill Donohue wants the Democratic National Convention to nix some of the bloggers who will be covering the event. He’s welcome to offer an opposing view…but he has no standing to demand that those with adversarial views be silenced. This is America…not the Vatican.
No doubt election years are trying times for many of us. It’s easy to find oneself drawn into the dog fight…especially if one is passionate about any particular issue. Fortunately, we live in a country that allows us to speak our minds and cast our votes accordingly. Sadly, there are those who want the benefit of speaking their mind in order to silence others. Last time I checked, that’s contrary to the American way.
However, it isn’t contrary to the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue. It seems that Donohue has taken offense to some of the bloggers who were selected to attend the Democratic National Convention…and he’s calling upon the powers that be to “nix them ASAP”.
Over 120 blogs have been credentialed as members of the media for the Democratic National Convention; those who have received credentials are allowed to cover the Convention at the Pepsi Center. While most of them offer legitimate commentary, some do not.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue is protesting two of the blogs:
“The list of credentialed blogs include radical sites like The Daily Kos. Worse are blogs that feature anti-Catholic and obscene material. The two most offensive are Bitch Ph.D. and Towleroad.
“On the home page of Bitch Ph.D. there is a picture of two children: one of them is shown flashing his middle finger. Today’s lead post, which was written August 17, is called ‘Jesus Christ.’ It begins with, ‘I’m a really crappy Catholic who hasn’t been to mass in ages because most parishes around here ‘will’ insist on being aggressively anti-abortion….’ The writer then objects to some children’s toys on the grounds that they are more offensive than desecrating the Eucharist. The toys are actually balloons that have been made to depict Jesus in various poses, including a crucified Christ; one of these images shows Jesus with a penis. Several who commented on this image made patently obscene comments.
“Towleroad describes itself as ‘A Site with Homosexual Tendencies.’ Accordingly, it shows men in jock straps and underwear. It also has a post on Pope Benedict XVI that takes him to task for wearing a cape with ermine. Some of those who commented on this described the pope in a vile and profane way.
“Both of these blogs should be cut immediately from the list of credentialed sites. Neither functions as a responsible media outlet and both offend Catholics, as well as others. To allow them access to the Democratic National Convention sends a message to Catholics they will not forget. We look for Leah Daughtry, CEO of the Convention, to nix them ASAP.”
As I stated at the outset, Donohue is entitled to his opinion. Notwithstanding, he’s not entitled to call on the Democratic National Convention to censor its list of bloggers. Yes, some of the bloggers chosen (this one included) have been critical of the Catholic Church…but we also represent important constituent groups in the Democratic Party. If Donohue wants lockstep homogeneity, there’s another party that more likely to embrace his point of view.
Truth be told, Donohue isn’t apt to vote for the Democratic nominee anyway…which likely means this grandstanding is simply a political stunt designed to outrage those Catholics he believes might be entertaining a vote for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. Again, he has every right to be heard…but so do the bloggers he’s singling out.
Donohue’s actions are part and parcel of the objections many have to the Catholic Church. History tells us that the Church is predisposed to dictating to its followers…despite ample evidence of its many misjudgments as well as an abundance of inappropriate decisions and behaviors.
While the Church believes in the infallibility of its leader, history suggests otherwise. The fact that men like Donohue still adhere to this mind set simply highlights his and his church’s irrational insistence upon blind faith. That can only work if one lives in a vacuum or has no interest in considering the facts.
In the end, Donohue’s outburst is an attempt to bully those who fail to share his ideology. He’s welcome to offer an opposing view…but he has no standing to demand that those with adversarial views be silenced. This is America…not the Vatican.
Bill Donohue is a choad with a big mouth and an over inflated illusion of self.
Yeah, but even dingleberries can be devout.
What the fuck is a “Catholic League”? If a religion is so weak that it needs a PR firm, then the religion doesn’t deserve to exist.
The “Catholic League” sees itself as performing a similar function as the Anti-Defamation League does for Judaism. They look for anti-Catholic bigotry and call it out. They are not an arm of the Vatican, and they have zero official sanction. They’re just a group of Americans who have formed a non-profit to advocate.
Unfortunately, the Catholic League refuses to make a distinction between actual anti-Catholic bigotry and criticism of the Church as an organization. And unfortunately for them there’s actually not much real anti-Catholic bigotry these days but there IS a lot of criticism of the Catholic Church hierarchy. So that’s where they have focused their work for the last decade or so. (They also seem to think that merely saying that Catholic doctrine is wrong in any way is also “anti-Catholic bigotry”. They really don’t understand what bigotry is.)
And the media status of the League has risen in recent years because of the pedophile scandals in the Church. The higher-ups started ordering their priests to not go on media shows when a Catholic viewpoint was needed because they didn’t want to have to talk about the scandal. So the press started turning to the Catholic League for things that the various diocese would have handled just a decade or so ago themselves.
The best thing that you can do with Donohue is ignore him. I wish the man would get himself involved in some kind of scandal that would knock is media star out of the sky. He makes Catholics look like idiots.
I think he is best countered with his own past words… my current favorite is when he said gays have yet to apologize to America for AIDS.
Has Televangelist Jim Bakker changed? http://www.collings-bakker.com “NO”