Catholic League Decries Media Silence over Pope’s Condemnation of Abortion

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Catholic League president Bill Donohue has denounced mainstream media silence over newsworthy remarks made by Pope Francis comparing abortionists to paid killers.

As Breitbart News reported, Pope Francis used some of his strongest language to date to condemn abortion Wednesday, comparing it to hiring a hit man to “bump off” a child.

Several times during his General Audience in Saint Peter’s Square, the pope added his own off-the-cuff, colorful reflections to his prepared text, likening abortion to “snuffing someone out” when they get in our way.

“I ask you,” the pope continued, “is it right to ‘bump off’ a human life to solve a problem? Is it right to hire a hit man to solve a problem? You cannot, it is not right to ‘bump off’ a human being, no matter how small, to solve a problem.”

“It is like hiring a hit man to solve a problem,” he repeated.

Despite these remarkable statements, America’s most notable “newspapers of record” did not even bother mentioning the event, Dr. Donahue lamented in a column Thursday.

“The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post—all of which never miss an opportunity to report the pope’s most liberal-left statements—said nothing,” Donahue wrote.

While this story on the pope “made papers in Australia, Canada, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, Kenya, and India,” Donahue noted, the American mainstream media were curiously silent.

The only major dailies to report this story were the Boston Globe, which ran an AP article on the topic, and the New Hampshire Union Leader, Donahue said.

Moreover, he added, the “disinterest” that the American media have in reporting such stories is not grounded in indifference. Rather, “it is ideologically based.”

When the pope said that it did not matter to God whether someone was a homosexual, the American mainstream media eagerly covered it, Donahue noted. Oddly, when later that same the month the pope raised a “red flag” about allowing gays in the seminary, “it was ignored by almost every media outlet.”

“When a pattern emerges, it is not an accident,” Donahue concluded.

“The media have a vested ideological interest in pushing the liberal-left agenda, and that is why they highlight the pope’s remarks which fit their cause and omit reporting on those that don’t,” he said.

“This may not qualify as ‘fake news,’ but it sure smacks of media bias,” he added.

Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter

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