Media Pile-On Against Pope for Quoting Against Islam

In The News Catholic News
#1

In his speech in Bavaria about the logical insparability of reason from faith, the Pope illustrated his points about violence in Islam with an ancient quotation. Before reading it, the pontiff characterized the emperor’s quotation with the German word for “brusque.”

Most of the media predictably led with “Pope Angers Islam” or some similarly misleading three-word combination to reflexively activate any latent “groupthink” anti-Catholicism. Why give the Church any ink if you can’t suggest an ad hominem attack against the Pope? The Turkish demand for the pope to apologize for mentioning history they don’t like, juxtaposed with the Pope’s planned visit to Turkey in November is just the bow-tie on this media-built straw man.

But once the adrenalin from the shared anti-Catholic peak experience wears off, the results from the pope’s historical lesson actually puts the irreligion brigade – led by the likes of Rosie O’Donnell – firmly on the spot. Whatever is said or not said now about the Pope’s citation or its effect on the media and the public will draw an illustration more clear than any camera can show. Turkish politicians, Indian extremists, and the oh-so-clever media have already posed for their portraits, and many if not most will remain unaware of the recording they leave for posterity.

Since nobody can escape from this particular photo shoot, everybody say “cheese” !

Let’s gather and catalog the predictable bashing to come… And let’s see if any in the media are thoughtful enough to change their positions.

Rules: Don’t repeat the same bash, but repeat every basher’s source. Refer to bashes by post number.

And feel free to copy and paste from this post (pls attribute me) in any letters you may send. I don’t use a phony name.

I hope to see a litany of how the media bashes anti when it comes to Catholic. Then we can all print them out and take them before the Most Blessed Sacrament.

#2

CNN Headline News just included the HF’s “brusque” characterization.

#3

CNNHN again: Photo of pope, The quotation itself, and “Pope Benedict XVI” on the screen. Who, with no other information, would see that and assume the Pope was quoting someone?

CNN Headline News makes itself complicit by implying attribution to the Pope.

They have a Muslim apologist who doesn’t understand he needs to turn his cell phone ringer off while on the air, but there is NO CHURCH REPRESENTATIVE.

Can’t CNN figure out how to get a Bishop on the air? How about a Vatican representative. They have one Matthew Bunsen selling his book.

#4

CNN Paula Zahn: “Next: (over video of a burning effigy) a look at how pope Benedict has made so many Muslims… (pause for effect) …angry.”

Did you even READ the speech, Paula?

#5

The only good thing with CNN news is someone said “How can you apologize for the truth?” or something of the sorts

#6

Thank you, Delia Gallagher for highlighting the facts.

Her CNN bosses, however, invite absolutely no representative of the Church again, only a heavily westernized Imam media representative who finds the pope’s use of the quote “deeply troubling” because it “fans and and aggravates the sentiment.” That would be the sentiment behind the papal effigy-burning?

They prove his point. All of them. All the time.

“Christian, Jew and Muslim faiths are actually very close to one another,” he slathers to Paula.

So would that be the sword cutting your head off part, or the forced conversion part, or the cutting your head off anyway after you convert so you die apostate without the sacraments part? Of course we all know it can’t be the flying airplanes into buildings part.

To be fair, maybe Paula was afraid to ask such questions to the face of a Muslim lest he cut off one of her body parts like her head.

So, CNN having given the Imam a chance to express his distress with the Pope’s “fanning”, let’s get some reaction from a representative of the Church. Except, wait – THERE IS NO REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Oh, wait, CNN doesn’t actually have integrity, at least not if there’s a chance they could help with taking a swipe at the Pope. CNN brings in an Imam to express his displeasure and accuse the Pope. CNN brings in NOBODY who represents the Church.

NOBODY.

What does it all MEAN?

Does it mean CNN has decided the Pope shouldn’t notice that hundreds of years ago, a Byzantine emperor condemned Islam’s commands to its faithful to commit violence by correctly calling it ‘evil’?

And the actual SUBSTANCE OF THE POPE’S SPEECH – DIRECTED AT THE WEST – a brilliant work in its own right – has been obscured, of course. By CNN. Way to go , guys.

Thank GOD CNN doesn’t run the judiciary.

And it looks like CNN is all down with the evil Muslim “side” here because they allowed NO CATHOLIC RESPONSE. No better than the puppet burners.

#7

A man is condemned to death in Afghanistan for converting from Islam. You cannot even have Mass in a private home in Saudi Arabia. Christians are second class citizens in every Islamic state. No Islamic clergy apologizes for 911; for the beheadings of innocents; for the murder of children or any of the thousand outrages committed by Islamists. But the media wants the Pope to apologize to Islam. Yes, and the Turks who murdered millions of innocent Armenians, and murder innocent Kurds right now today, are so sensitive that they demand it too. And for what???

For telling the truth.

Islam will not be satisfied with the Pope, and would never have been satisfied with him until he declares Islam superior to Christianity and accepts dhimmitude. Neither will the U.S. Media. And the media types in the U.S. who hate Christianity with a white hot fury, will perhaps be surprised if someday some mullah tells them to convert, accept dhimmitude or die. Since so many of them are actually not Christians at all, the choice for many would be convert or die.

And like so many under the sword of Islam, they will pretend to believe.

#8

I think the effects of this speech in America will be very positve. Many in my state, which is 40% Catholic, seem to believe if the threat of Islam is ignored, it will go away. Not uncommon in Connecticut to hear Islamic terrorism is our fault and to mock those who attempt to stop it.

#9

I have been scanning the web news sources after I first heard a news account about the Pope’s comments on the radio. The initial news account was, to be polite, lacking detail. The mainstream news sources are, also to be polite, expectedly disgraceful. They do not disappoint. The BBC provided no context and Reuters provided negative connotation.

Then I researched this a bit further and read some of what Pope Benedict actually said (not just the quote about which the media and muslim world now are aroused). Pope Benedict is perhaps one of the great learned and scholarly theologians of our time. The Holy Father was lecturing at the university where he taught theology for several years.

The Pope was teaching, as he should, that religion, which calls to a god who is totally “transcendent” and removed from man’s reason, cannot be influenced by reason, and essentially loses that religion cannot help man to discern truth. That is, such a religion does not recognize the gift of the Holy Spirit in providing us the grace and wisdom to discern truth. Thus, without reason any action in the name of that god can be justified (as in the name of that god, kill anyone in the disagrees or will not submit to coerced conversion). Using our Christian model (and really as a Catholic theology) he called upon faith/religion to influence our passions through reason. Very Thomistic.

Unfortunately, this is not what the world media is reporting in their collective glee to cast aspersions on our Faith and our Holy Father—the bigger disgrace being the media of course. Almost without irony, Islam is now reacting by exhortation to violence in response to a carefully worded and humble invitation by the Pope to engage in reasoned discourse. It is that reasoned discourse, and reason itself born of a doctrine of reasoned faith as a means of knowing truth, which Islam seems categorically to violently oppose.

The Pope was inviting a dialogue with, or inviting a look at truth through introspection within, Islam by calling upon it to accept reason for without reason you can have no dialogue. Now we know the answer. The media won’t see this in its necessary context given its collective view of Catholicism. And the Moslem world can’t understand what the Pope was saying because their belief system is not one which accepts reason as evidenced by the unreasoned response of the Muslim world.

So, we are now at the point where the muslim world is not far different than the politically correct western post modern world…”shut up Church we don’t want to hear the truth”—with the difference between the two being that islam will kill you for it. Think about what Islam is called upon to do by the very words of the Koran—convert by the sword. Think about how satanic that is: you have a choice to live and to damn your soul to hell, or to die. (Where was the outrage of the media when those Fox reporters were faced with that evil choice). Well, I pray for our Pope that he continue to have the courage to speak truth to power, and that he not be discouraged by the opinion of a world gone mad with itself.

#10

The media need to report the story and need a sensational point of view for their headline. Now which side is safer for them to take? How many media have complained about the forced conversions of the captive journalists? They are in this to sell papers; not to demonstrate their courage.

#11

The Guardian doesn’t disappoint:

The unmistakable whiff of Christian triumphalism

This was no casual slip. Beneath his scholarly rhetoric, the Pope’s logic seemed to be that Islam is dangerous and godless . . .

#12

Sadly, I can’t imagine how anyone will even HEAR it, much less be affected by it since:

First, the media will NEVER represent it [the Pope’s speech]. Not even unfairly. It just won’t be considered worthy of airtime. Just some old guy flapping his gums, you know? Besides, it doesn’t fit in a sound-bite. But, hey, he sure got those fire-dancers in india worked up, huh? And the entire parliament of Pakistan, too! So let’s lead with THAT.

I found it quite amusing that CNN wrote that it “had obtained a translation of the speech from Reuters.” No. Really? Is that an exclusive? I didn’t need to appeal to Reuters for a translation. I just needed EWTN’s NewsLink page. I guess CNN doesn’t have any computers that are connected to the Internet.

Subtitle: “So many copies of it fell out of our fax machine onto the floor we finally decided to figure out a wording to take credit for it.”

Second, this same hate-fueled confusion drives the Islamic greivance culture, today in India, Egypt, Palestine and Turkey – today’s early-adopter nations, for instance – to dance around in the streets burning dolls. Remember the big shots like Iran haven’t weighed in yet. We’ll be seeing that next week.

The same hate-filled confusion drives the MSM (somebody please show me an instance otherwise) which despises the idea of continence so much they would rather just feature an Islamic Imam WITHOUT INVITING ANY CATHOLIC REPRESENTATIVE… How fair is THAT?

Is CNN promoting Islamic Jihad at the expense of the Pope’s plea for reason? I wouldn’t put it past them. They seem to be that proud.

Can we all say “AN-TI-CATH-O-LIC-BI-AS” ? And at any price, too. So when Paula Zahn has to wear a burqa on-air and is deemed by Sharia to be worth 3/5 of a human being, CNN can console themselves as they “submit to peace” five times a 24x7 day, by remembering “At least we passively distorted the Pope’s message of authentic peace to the public. Boy, we showed him.”

N-E-V-E-R will the Pope’s brilliant speech be mentioned because the ones in the media who have already read it and understood it have realized it calls for reason in the light of faith, and… well, there’s that ‘F’ word again. MSM opposes faith (as a principle) so they bury it. Besides, they assume their audience is too stupid to understand it anyway.

Then tell them they are as stupid as the people who thought the Nazis would “go away” if ignored. I just don’t get what it would take to make the point. I thought people in that part of the world -of all places- would have understood the causality of 9/11/2001 by now. If I’m not mistaken, you had to breathe the smoke from the twin towers, didn’t you?

Consider calling the police for advice. You pay taxes. In war a sympathetic attitude towards possible enemy agents is grouped with aiding and abetting the enemy.

“Did he go too far?” says John Roberts. Yeah, John, you’re going to make a turban and beard look GOOOOOD.

#13

Delia Gallagher is now asking if Pope Benedict is “undermining strides made by his predecessor Pope John Paul II’”

Oh, I GET IT! Let’s turn the public against Pope Benedict’s condemnation of the evil commands of the Koran by saying he’s “undermining” Pope John Paul II.

The image of two Rock-em-Sock-em Straw men being operated by CNN producers comes to mind.

So now John Roberts brings in another slick Muslim apologist. A young, hip one with a soul patch, explaining how this also offends the “vast majority” of moderates. Still no priest or bishop.

Two interviews in a row with NO CATHOLIC REPRESENTATIVE, ONLY A MUSLIM.

This is CNN’s idea of fairness and balance in reporting, apparently - ON A STORY THAT HIGHLIGHTS THE EVIL PARTS OF ISLAM. Why? Because they won’t risk painting the Pope in a positive light. To the media, THAT is the only unforgivable sin.

They won’t even admit that the pope is right about evil being a bad thing.

What is CNN going to do next, bring in somebody to argue the case for evil?
'We moderates are deeply offended that the Pope would imply that there is anything wrong with evil."

CNN is simply absurd.

John Roberts (or as I like to call him “The Maaaj” because that’s what he used to call himself - John Major – when he was a Top 40 DJ at CHUM in Toronto in the 80s) opines that “the Vatican is under a lot of pressure tonight to somehow make this right.”

No, John, there is a lot of pressure on CNN to do its job correctly, but you exempt yourselves from any need for fairness if it means you can kick at the Church – EVEN IF FAILURE TO ADMIT THE POPE IS RIGHT WOULD COST EVERYBODY SHARIA.

There is nothing funnier to me than a DJ trying to act serious. This is an impossible gift: John Roberts just stuck his foot down his throat with a STUPID DJ crack about “intelligent people.” “None of them in this room, that’s for sure,” Roberts says, glancing off-camera, suddenly very nervous, and instantly apologizing “I’m sorry.” Count on that to come up in your next show review, John. You’re NOT funny. That’s why they didn’t pay you the big bucks in Toronto. Then he comes back to apologize on air to everyone in the studio. “I’m dumb as a box of rocks.” Got that right. Just read the moving words on the glass before they disappear, John.

What a lightweight. In fact, what a lightweight effort on the whole.

#14

Remember, this is Connecticut. Ned Lamont, after having Michael Schivao endorse him at a rally two blocks from the Knights of Columbus international headquarters, won the Democratic Senate primary. Maybe its the water. I don’t know. 9/11 never happened, other attacks never happened and everything is Bush’s fault.

That is why I’m encouraged by this speech. I can see right now Catholics are not going to stand for the media attacks on the Pope. Neither Catholics nor Protestants will let the Politically Correct version of Islam go unchallenged.

#15

Ned Lamont had Michael Schiavo endorse him? We couldn’t make this up. I wish you, Kevin Fraser, could get 10 min, on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC or any of the alphabets. Oh, heck, you could do it in 5 min.

#16

Hi all, I MIGHT GET BANNED AFTER THIS POST, after reading this thread ,You ask a question why the media did not have a spokes person from the Church , I think the reason is simple ,When people talk about the holy father theres only one and thats GOD, Nobody else plus i have spoken on National radio about the mulim religion and its fantics yours Michael McManus

#17

Somehow I doubt that was their reason. :rolleyes:

#18

I am FURIOUS about this editorial in today’s NYT:

nytimes.com/2006/09/16/opinion/16sat2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Why is it that Catholics are supposed to take whatever **** the popular culture throws at us, but Islamicists get a free pass??!! I sent this letter in response, but I doubt it will be published.

To the Editor:

Contrary to what was reported in your paper, the Holy Father did not call Islam, “evil and inhuman” during his recent speech at the University of Regensburg. The author of the quote, Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, was engaged in a scholarly debate with an educated Persian concerning the relative merits of Christianity and Islam. It should not be surprising that the emperor and his interlocutor would resort to polemic to defend their respective faiths. Pope Benedict XVI used the emperor’s quote to illustrate a fundamental difference between the conceptions of God that are presented by the Christian and Islamic faiths, namely that the latter believes God to be completely transcendent and unfettered by human notions of rationality, whereas the former asserts that God is synonymous with reason itself (i.e., the Logos). Read in its proper context, Pope Benedict XVI was actually using the quote to illustrate that it is irrational for God to demand followers to use violence to convert others. It is impossible to engage in real interfaith dialogue when we are not even allowed to mention the differences that exist between religions. It is extremely hypocritical for the New York Times to demand an apology from the Holy Father for his innocuous comments and not request similar statements from Islamic leaders who regularly preach hatred against the West and incite their followers to violence.

#19

Like forever the mass media is rubbish, beginning with CNN and anti-christian President Turner.

#20

More reason not to watch the MSM. Their hatefullness and agenda pushin has made them loose all sense of rational thinking. It is time we religate them to the dustbin of history.

PF