As part of its mission as a media conduit for the religious right, Fox News has taken on the role of defender and promoter of the conservative views of the Catholic Church - "Nuns on the Bus," not so much! So it's not surprising that while other news outlets are covering American politics, Fox has become the media outlet for extensive coverage of the upcoming papal election - a pope-a-paloozathon that consists of happy talk about the Catholic Church with only fleeting references to church "scandals." Given that Fox is on a mission from its god, Roger Ailes, to slam other media, Fox talkers have accused media, which discusses the "bad stuff" in the Church, of being anti-Catholic. And given that Fox is the media outlet for the Bishop's opposition to the president's birth control mandate, it's not surprising that the Fox papal election coverage never wastes an opportunity to promote the papal possibilities of the USCCB head, Fox fave, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as was done, again, by Fox VP John Moody on yesterday's America Live show. Megyn Kelly provided the amen chorus! And once again, Dolan's dirty laundry wasn't aired
Megyn Kelly, a self identified Catholic despite a divorce and remarriage not performed by a Catholic priest, immediately set the theme of the piece in commenting about how "we've learned that there might be a few favorites," including Americans, in the upcoming papal election. But she set expectations low with her additional comment that her guest, John Moody, a devout Catholic and Fox News VP (which might explain Fox's apparent pro-conservative Catholic bias) says "that by no means are they the possible picks." She said that the selection of the pope is "exciting" and asked Moody how he is handicapping this. He responded that the process is still in the beginning phase. After some joking about how the candidates are expected to learn Latin and Cardinal Dolan said his Latin is lousy, the discussion miraculously turned to Dolan.
Kelly said "let's talk about him" [Dolan] because "I want to start with the lead for most Americans which would be if we wound up with an American as pope." (Uh, "most Americans?") She identified Dolan as the Cardinal from NY as a photo of Dolan's big, fat face was shown over the chyron "Favorites and Possible Surprises For Next Leader of Catholic Church." She noted that after the death of Benedict, people didn't think the successor would be an American; "but now there's more buzz about him." Moody claimed that Dolan scoffs at the notion while a photo of Dolan, with - ready for it - Fox's very own priest, Fr. Jonathan Morris, standing beside him was shown. (Morris' Facebook cult followers want him to be pope some day.) Moody reported that many of those Cardinals who have met with Dolan are impressed by his "common sense" and say "he's a smart guy."
Moody analyzed other papal possibilities such as Cardinal Scola who would be able to "clean up the Vatican." Kelly asked - ROFLMAO - "why would they want to do that?" Moody referenced scandals involving Vatican leaks, corruption, and sexual abuse. Moody and Kelly spoke of the need for a pope who can be a good manager. Kelly referenced an article by - drum role please - Fr. Morris who concludes that "we have to expect" that the pope will have human limitations. Kelly made the astoundingly idiotic comment that "Jesus selected the first pope and now this is a direct descendency" - a comment that Protestants would beg to differ on as well as being contrary to history which informs us that in the early church, all the bishops were co-equal until some Roman bishop declared himself pope. There is noreal evidence that "St. Peter" was ever in Rome. Kelly chirped, again, that this is "kind of exiting." In concluding, she promoted Moody's book about Pope JPII who, according to Megyn, has "huge" Pradas "left to be filled."
So once again, the "fair & balanced" Fox News brings up Dolan without mentioning the sexual abuse issues that he dealt with poorly or didn't deal with at all. But if Dolan is the next Pope, maybe he'll turn the Sistine Chapel over to Fox News as a broadcast studio and declare Fox's teaching's infallible. Funny, evangelicals don't get anywhere near the Fox air time that the Catholic Church does. Guess Roger Ailes has a holy GOP vision for 2016!