In Desperate Attempt to Save Obama, NPR and AP Hype Another Catholic Church Scandal

President Barack Obama has been roundly criticized for his recent unconstitutional mandate to force Catholic charities (and other religious institutions) to provide (directly and then indirectly) access to contraception and abortion drugs. Peggy Noonan, who was once quite sympathetic to Obama, even declared: “President Obama just may have lost the election.”

So–just in time–the National Public Radio and the Associated Press have produced another Catholic Church scandal. The contrived controversy has nothing to do with–but has been built around–the archbishop of New York, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, who has been on of Obama’s most important critics on the mandate.

It was Dolan who stated that Obama had not only made a bad decision, but betrayed a specific promise to religious leaders.

That is why he is now being targeted.The scandal involves allegations of mismanagement in the Vatican administration, according to the AP:

The Vatican spokesman has been doing serious damage control of late amid reports and leaked documents alleging corruption in the running of the Vatican city state, money laundering at the Vatican bank and political infighting between opposing camps within the Vatican bureaucracy.

The scandal began last month with the publication of letters from the former No. 2 Vatican administrator, who begged the pope not to be transferred after he exposed millions of euros in cost overruns. He was then removed and named the Vatican’s U.S. ambassador in Washington.

That has nothing to do with Dolan–but that did not stop the AP from focusing on him as if he were a central figure. NPR ran a similar story on Friday afternoon’s All Things Considered (not available for embedding, apparently), focusing on allegations against the Catholic Church and highlighting Dolan as a symbol of the church as a whole.The Obama administration is wary of antagonizing Catholics any further–but its media allies seem to have no problem attacking the church itself. It’s as if one part of the First Amendment were attacking another.Another feature of the divisive Obama presidency–and the mainstream media’s efforts to defend it.