Despite its "fair & balanced" slogan, Fox News does seem to be the media mouthpiece for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Not only did they provide support for the bishops' opposition to the HHS birth control mandate; but the conservative Catholics in Fox's large stable of conservative Catholics promoted the zombie lie that the mandate allows coverage for abortion drugs. So it wasn't surprising to see that this morning's Fox & Friends covered the latest outrage making the rounds of conservative Catholic websites; i.e. Caroline Kennedy's Democratic Convention statement that, as a Catholic, she supports women's reproductive rights - a position about which Fox's own Catholic grand inquisitor and paragon of Catholic family values, Bill O'Reilly, is "stunned." And just to make sure that the Fox audience is also appalled, Fox priest Fr. Jonathan Morris' sweet Sunday Fox & Friends sermon included a not so thinly veiled attack on Ms. Kennedy along with a reminder about why Catholics shouldn't vote for those "evil" Democrats. On Fox News, Father knows best!!!!
As video of Kennedy's commentary was shown the chyron framed the requisite message: "Shocking DNC Speech, Kennedy Defends Abortion As A Catholic." As video of O'Reilly's comments was shown the chyron made sure that you knew that Papa Bear was upset: "O'Reilly Outraged, Says He Was Stunned by Kennedy's Speech." Fr. Morris immediately validated O'Reilly's outrage and accused Kennedy of "intellectual dishonesty." He sputtered that Kennedy should have describe herself as a "Catholic dissident on this teaching from my church." More propaganda framing with this chyron: "Double Speak, Kennedy Facing Criticism for Comments." When he noted that Kennedy said she supports abortion, Alisyn Camerota countered that Kennedy said "reproductive health." The cute little celibate padre looked frustrated when Camerota asked if Kennedy could have been talking about birth control or "personhood amendments." After noting that Kennedy didn't say the word "abortion," she tossed the propaganda ball to Fr. Morris when she said that "you think she's fudging it."
While using his best jazz hands and dramatic rendering, Fr. Morris said that what Kennedy was talking about is "absolutely clear" and that O'Reilly was right about how Kennedy alluded to, as Fr. Morris described it, restrictions on "unrestricted access to abortion." (GOP talking points alert - Dems love abortion!) Morris referenced waiting periods and parental notification which are attempts by Morris' church and the pro-life movement to force women to jump through totally unnecessary hoops in order to procure a legal surgical procedure. Morris was all vaclempt when repeated his contention that she is dishonest and has bought into "religious relativism" by suggesting that her Catholic faith supports her position.
Fr. Morris then provided the audience with a reminder about why the shouldn't vote Democratic with his catechism lesson about how abortion is a fundamental issue and as such, those Catholics who vote Democratic need to ask "Is this party going against a fundamental belief in my faith" and say "I can't support this evil." After Clayton Morris asked about why so many at the convention "celebrated abortion" (GOP talking points alert - Dems love abortion!), Morris responded they want to say that "we are the party of this and this and it's different than the Republicans..." He closed with the comment that he thinks Kennedy "is a wonderful person but that she should be more intellectually honest." (Talk about praising with faint damns!)
A reading from the holy GOP gospel of Fox "News." Praise be to you Lord Roger Aisles!
Huhhhhhhh? The mind boggles.
Abortion rates go up whenever there is ignorance and especially when contraception is either not available or too expensive. That’s when there is a lot of money in illegal abortions and high mortality rates among the less than wealthy.
That’s your privilege, Linda, but does that give you the right to speak for others? I, for one, don’t think so.
@Nayef: “I am still waiting for a Muslim doctor to refuse engaging in abortion on religious grounds and see Fox become pro-choice instantly.” I agree. And the foxy faithful will turn on a dime, too. Can never remember which novel where the narrator was employed by a special service charged with rewriting the history books every decade or so (“Brave New World” or “1984”?).
@Linda, again: Planned Parenthood provides women throughout the country with health care that they cannot otherwise afford. Women who have access to that sort of care are more likely to have healthy babies. Pretty good start, I’d say. I second the request by Visitor 55 for credible proof of your accusations against PP.
Second, I am not against said fan clubs to piss me off or interfere in politics, they should just pay tax like the rest of us.
Third,
Fox is incensed she is using “as a Catholic woman” for “creating her own truth” without realizing they are against social justice, a Catholic teaching.
Why do scientists who EARN their income working on projects to improve the quality of life of humanity pay taxes, but jerkoffs like Hagee and this prick only contribute ignorance and divisiveness without paying tax on money they embezzle from the masses.
You want intellectual honesty?
Come out of your closet first.
Until then, take a flying fuck through a rolling donut.
Take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon!
Well, then YOU should be able to do exactly what YOU feel is the right thing. But YOU have neither the moral or legal right to impose your beliefs on others. We here can live with any decision that you make for yourself.
I am still waiting for a Muslim doctor to refuse engaging in abortion on religious grounds and see Fox become pro-choice instantly.
Have you been paying attention to efforts in Virginia to have vaginal ultrasounds? Or efforts NATIONWIDE to force doctors to show women sonograms of the “baby” they want to abort? (In Texas, the courts ruled that this was NOT an undue imposition on either the woman or the doctor’s part.) How about various efforts to cut funding for Planned Parenthood clinics (which just happen to be the PRIMARY health clinics in many urban—read “poor and minority-inhabited”—areas)?
How about various state efforts to define legal minimums for places that can provide abortions? Some states have decided to require that the abortion doctor be credentialed at local hospitals (which may be difficult since some clinic operators are the modern equivalent of “circuit preachers” and may perform abortions at several different clinics in different cities) or that the clinics must have a minimum number of parking spaces or must have a minimum square footage with a full-fledged separate operating room (with its own minimum square footage—there was one clinic, I believe in Kansas, that pointed out that the area’s major hospitals didn’t even have an OR with that minimum square footage) or that the clinic’s records be subjected to more stringent security requirements than any hospital or general purpose family clinic.
Or are these not restrictions to you? Do you want the government telling you and your doctor what you can do with your body?
Anyway, the Foxies play what this “quantum jump game” all the time: any time the topic of “reproductive health” comes up, they jump straight to abortion and they won’t let go. As we all know after taking time to think, reproductive health means an awful lot of other things, including and especially preserving a woman’s ability to bear healthy children. Can’t see what’s so wrong about that.
A side thought: There are logical consequences to this insistence on makingreproductive health unavailable or too expensive: rising numbers of orphans and children living in poor families. The latter should be a matter of concern for anybody in any democracy based on one-person-one-vote.
