It's official. According to Roger Ailes' personal attorney, litigator for the NY Catholic archdiocese, Catholic Knight of Malta, and Fox host Peter Johnson Jr., Fox News loves Cardinal Timothy Dolan. And the feeling is quite mutual.
In choosing Fox News as his media outlet for his annual Christmas message, NY Cardinal Dolan, once again, showed that Fox News is the preferred network, if not for the Pope (He's Marxist), for America's conservative Catholics. It's a neat little quid pro quo for both Roger Ailes and the portly prelate. Ailes gets to promote right wing talking points framed as Catholic dogma; and the Church, through Fox's right wing mouthpiece, Fr. Jonathan Morris, gets to promote Catholic dogma framed as right as right wing talking points. A win-win for everybody.
The less than six degrees of separation between Dolan and Fox News was in full display on Christmas Eve when, on Fox & Friends, a happy faced Dolan delivered, to Peter Johnson Jr. and a waiting Fox nation, his annual Christmas message. After Dolan's anodyne sermon, Johnson said that "you make Christmas here for all of us at Fox and Friends." After assuring Dolan that he would be at Midnight Mass, Johnson said "God bless you, we love you." Dolan responded, "we love you." Johnson repeated "we love you."
And why wouldn't he love Fox News. One need look no further than the *extensive support, provided by Fox News, for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' (at the time headed by Dolan) opposition to the ACA's birth control mandate. A groveling Steve Doocy, one of Roger Ailes' stable of reliable, right wing Catholics, hosted Cardinal Dolan for a promotion piece on Catholic schools. Alleged newswoman Martha MacCallum, another member of the stable, pimped Dolan as a "rock star" while fellow alleged newswoman and stable member Megyn Kelly pimped Dolan for pope.
But now both Fox News (through Peter Johnson Jr.) and Dolan feel free to come out and express their mutual adoration. As the "Church Lady" would say, "isn't that special."
And in case there's any doubt as to whether Fox and Dolan are joined at the hip, check out Steve Doocy's Instagram photo of Doocy, his family, all shites and giggles, arm-in-arm with the corpulent cardinal, at (drum roll please) Peter Johnson Jr.'s Christmas party.
*Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here,Here,Here
More Fox love (Johnson's Twitter)
The sooner the Pope reassigns Dolan to a rural parish out on the plains, the better. He comes close to being the worst of many bad apples in the Holy Roman Church and I remain eternally grateful that he does not have any real influence or power (except on Fox, of course).
The waiting line for the pearly gates is very short because so many so-called Christians are in the other line. The increase in workload has prompted the minions of Satan to ask for more efficient tools than the traditional pitchfork.