“Anti-Muslim bigotry is a problem, but it is only exacerbated by the media’s tendency to exaggerate and sensationalize it,” the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto observed Wednesday in looking at the media’s focus on the threat, to burn Qur’ans, by one widely condemned Florida pastor with barely a few dozen followers. On Wednesday night, for the second night in a row, two of the three broadcast network evening news shows led with Terry Jones (ABC and CBS on Tuesday, CBS and NBC on Wednesday.)

But what I found amusing is how network journalists decided Sarah Palin, the Pope – and even Pat Robertson – are now sources of wisdom worth publicizing. Over aerial video of the Vatican (screen capture below), Katie Couric teased the CBS Evening News: “Tonight, despite condemnation from the Vatican and a personal plea from Muslims, that Christian minister in Florida is going ahead with plans to burn copies of the Qur’an.”

“This is the news,” an excited Diane Sawyer announced on ABC, “not only is Billy Graham’s son Franklin trying to reach out to him, so is Sarah Palin.” Terry Moran relayed how “late today, Sarah Palin tweeted her opposition, writing: ‘Please stand down.’ And long-time televangelist Pat Robertson blasted Pastor Jones this morning.”

In the second of two reports at the top of the NBC Nightly News, Andrea Mitchell touted how “the Florida pastor even got the Vatican’s attention” and aired a clip of a Vatican spokesman declaring: “This act would only call for new hate and violence.” Mitchell concluded by approvingly paraphrasing a political figure normally the object of journalistic scorn: “Sarah Palin has now tweeted that Pastor Jones should please stand down, that people have a right to burn a Qur’an but that it is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation that will feed the fire.”

Palin’s tweet: “Koran Burning Is Insensitive, Unnecessary; Pastor Jones, Please Stand Down”

Back to ABC’s World News, Terry Moran saw sinister views of Islam held by Americans, but failed to point out attitudes have held steady for years and are not spiking:

Still, Jones vows to go forward, convinced he speaks for many Americans. A brand new ABC News poll confirms some disturbing facts. 26 percent of Americans admit to feelings of prejudice against Muslims and only 54 percent of Americans see Islam as a peaceful religion. 31 percent say mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims.

In reciting the same numbers online, however, ABC News polling chief Gary Langer added a crucial fact which undermines the implication that negative views of Islam are growing:

Just 54 percent call Islam a peaceful religion, while a substantial minority, 31 percent, thinks mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims. This view has held steady since 2003, after doubling from 2002.

From the WSJ’s online “Best of the Web Today” for September 8, a perceptive take from James Taranto:

…Anti-Muslim bigotry is a problem, but it is only exacerbated by the media’s tendency to exaggerate and sensationalize it – and by the adversarial and snobbish attitude many journalists and some politicians have adopted toward the vast majority of Americans, who are not bigoted and who see the Ground Zero mosque as an affront.

The obnoxious pastor and the obnoxious media have a confluence of interests here. It is no credit to the latter that their behavior has been no worse than that of the former.

Sawyer set up Moran’s September 8 story:

The chorus of voices grew louder today denouncing that Florida pastor who plans to burn the Qur’an on Saturday, the anniversary of 9/11. And, as we told you last night, Terry Jones’ church has only a couple of dozen members, but tonight, this is the news: Not only is Billy Graham’s son Franklin trying to reach out to him, so is Sarah Palin. And, we have a new poll showing what Americans really think and know about Islam. Here’s Terry Moran.
….

TERRY MORAN: Late today, Sarah Palin tweeted her opposition, writing: “Please stand down.” And long-time televangelist Pat Robertson blasted Pastor Jones this morning.

PAT ROBERTSON: Imagine a pastor that is so egotistical that he would sacrifice the lives of missionaries and soldiers to go forward with something. This is so stupid.

CBS Evening News, September 8:

After Couric’s tease quoted above (“Tonight, despite condemnation from the Vatican and a personal plea from Muslims, that Christian minister in Florida is going ahead with plans to burn copies of the Qur’an”), she related in her opening: “And the Vatican said quote, “This act would only call for new hate and violence.’”

You might think Ed Schultz would be out of place in a junior high recess yard, but that’s where he’s landed himself with his childish name-calling . . .

On his show this evening, the MSNBC host—demonstrably desperate to pick a fight with his ratings superiors at Fox News—no fewer than four times referred to FNC host Steve Doocy as Steve "Douche-y."

It was an appearance on a Doocy-hosted show by resident FNC legal expert Judge Andrew Napolitano, discussing the Glenn Beck rally, that supplied Schultz the opening to engage in his middle-school worthy mispronunciation.

Check the video to witness Ed in the puerile pits.

National Public Radio is strongly urging America to get over its apparently rabid case of Islamophobia. On Sunday night’s All Things Considered newscast, anchor Guy Raz played audio clips of Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin opposing the Ground Zero Mosque, and then launched into how much this resembles historic anti-Semitism:

In his column today, New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof points out that in 1940, 17 percent of the population considered Jews to be a menace to America. Almost every ethnic group in this country has gone through a period of transition when they had to fight to prove that, indeed, they were Americans.

Rabiah Ahmed and a group of Muslim leaders thought their community had to do the same today. So this week, they launched an online video campaign called "My Faith, My Voice."

What Raz does not point out is that Rabiah Ahmed is a former publicist and prominent national spokesperson for the Council for Islamic-American Relations (CAIR), a group named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in a terrorist funding case. Raz didn’t so much conduct a news interview with Rabiah Ahmed as much as he joined her in condemning the sad and bigoted state of America today:   

RAZ: Rabiah, how did it get to this point, you know, where, in a sense, you’re stating what should be painfully obvious, that people who practice the Muslim faith in America are Americans just like anyone else?

Ms. AHMED: You know, it is sad that it has to be said, but it’s necessary nonetheless because this rhetoric, these anti-Muslim feelings, they’re not just coming from the usual right-wing or agenda-driven circles.

Polls indicate that these fears are widespread. They’re in the hearts of average Americans, moderate Americans. And that’s what’s so concerning about this.

In the post-9/11 climate, there was anti-Muslim backlash, but it wasn’t so open. It wasn’t so hostile, and it wasn’t so widespread. And whatever the Muslim community has been doing in the past 10 years, it’s been a good effort, but for some reason, it’s not achieving its goal.

RAZ: Do you think, as a society, we’re in the midst of maybe a passing storm, you know, something that we will look back on in 10 or 20 years from now and wonder how it ever came to this?

Ms. AHMED: I hope so. I hope it is a passing storm. I hope that it’s just a matter of time where Muslims are seen as part and parcel of the society. You know, if we look back at our history, other communities have faced this kind of discrimination or these kinds of feelings, and they’ve been able to overcome. But it’s not going to happen by itself.

The Muslim community is going to really have to reach out in different ways, you know, through interfaith relations, through public service announcements, through whatever way that people can contribute and try to address these issues because if it’s not done, then there’s a potential of it just getting worse.

RAZ: That’s Rabiah Ahmed. She’s one of the people behind a new online video campaign called "My Faith, My Voice."  Rabiah Ahmed, thank you so much.

Ms. AHMED: Thank you for having me.

The "My Faith, My Voice" organizers claimed they are absolutely unaffiliated. But is Ahmed or her Mirza Public Relations firm being paid, and if so, by whom? NPR’s anchor didn’t care enough to ask, at least not for the public.

Before this sympathetic exchange, Raz explained "In a few moments, we’ll find out why Muslims in one grassroots movement have decided to remind their fellow Americans that, well, they’re Americans too." But first, he found some American Muslims who found the current rhetorical environment is endangering their safety:

HUSSEIN NAGAMEA(ph): My name is Hussein Nagamea. I have no time since my immigration to the United States felt that I was unsafe in this country until now, recently.

BARBARA KHANDAKAR: I am careful about who I talk to in public, not so much just talking to them, but other Muslims that I greet, I don’t automatically go say, hi, assalamu alaikum, because I don’t want to draw attention to myself that I’m Muslim or that they’re Muslim, just in case someone out there might be crazy.

ZIYA NASIR: You kind of feel afraid that everyone thinks that way, you know, everyone who’s not Muslim believes that. That is probably the most frightening out of everything.

So this is how it works at taxpayer-supported radio. If you’re non-Muslim and think Muslims are endangering your safety, you’re a bigot. If you’re Muslim and you think non-Muslims are endangering your safety, you’re handed a microphone and a pat on the back.

Obama administration Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (pictured at right with what I would guess is her ideal car of the future) shamelessly used Labor Day weekend as an opportunity to score political points.

In a presentation that was more a political stump speech than an informative presentation, Solis recited a litany of alleged accomplishments. Many of them have no relationship to what her department does, while some are also objectively wrong. Second, she set up a host of straw men in the form of "those who woulds" and "to those who want tos" to make her department and the administration where she works appear as if they and they alone are the bulwark against rapacious employers and their political allies.

What follows is the YouTube video (direct link here), and selected transcribed excerpts:

Excerpts:

(3:10 – 4:30) You can be certain that like the president, I will not stop working until every American is back on their feet and we have fulfilled our mission to provide good and safe jobs for everyone.

We’re making important inroads towards that goal. So let me tell you, briefly, what we have done so far to get there.

First and foremost, we have reversed the dangerous trend of job loss in our country. Because, just over a year ago, we were losing almost 700,000 jobs per month. We were on the verge of another Great Depression. We took immediate action to stop the bleeding and create jobs. Now, instead of losing jobs, we’ve actually added them in the private sector every month. We’ve averaged about 90,000 jobs for the last seven months.

But something else too, and this is important, our efforts, most notably the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, saved millions of American jobs in the auto manufacturing industry. [1] These efforts have also kept health care workers in clinics and community hospitals. They’ve kept hundreds of thousands of teachers in classrooms, and police and firefighters on the beat where they should be.

(4:50 – 4:58) Now we are making it possible for American entrepreneurs to create and grow businesses that will put people to work. [2]

(5:10 – 5:50) As a result of our quick and bold actions, millions of people are at work, building and rebuilding America’s roads, bridges, ports, and high-speed rail. [3]

And we’re also investing in a new American foundation, and a whole new American industry and employer, and that’s clean energy.

We look at that investment two ways. Advances in biofuels, wind, and solar power will reduce our dependence on foreign energy, and reenergize American manufacturing. I’ve long believed that green jobs can be great jobs, and jobs that every American can take advantage of.

(6:12) I am pleased that this administration is making student loans more affordable and available.

(6:40) Now, as we’ve done all that, we’ve also strengthened the safety net for American workers. We’ve expanded unemployment insurance programs in nearly 40 states so more people can receive benefits. And after decades of failing to rein in the out-of-control health care system, our reforms will control costs, improve care, minimize fraud, and provide security for millions of American families.

(7:23) In the weeks and months ahead, policymakers will be debating what should come next. There are some who will suggest that, when times are tough, it’s time to get tough on working people. [4] They’ll suggest that we cut back on worker training, to cut back on worker safety, and to cut back on giving workers a voice in their workplace. I totally disagree.

To those who say we can no longer afford to train, retool and educate our workforce, I say we can’t afford not to. To those who want to cut corners and disregard safety in the workplace, I say keeping workers safe matters far more than saving a few cents.

And to those who want to deny workers a voice in the workplace, let me be clear: This Secretary of Labor recognizes, respects, and celebrates a worker’s right to organize and bargain collectively.

As individuals and as a nation, we have very important choices to make. And each one merits careful and informed discussion. So in the weeks and months ahead, I hope we can continue this conversation. Each and every one of us has something at stake. And we simply cannot afford to make the wrong choices.

Here are three obvious errors in Solis’s presentation:

• [1] – The "auto manufacturing industry," even at is most broadly defined (which would include all transportation equipment, all motor vehicle and parts dealers, has only three million employees. The Labor Secretary is essentially claiming that there would be no industry without the stimulus plan. Other than to point out that Government/General Motors and Chrysler proactively killed tens of thousands of jobs at auto dealers, this claim is so utterly ridiculous as to require no further comment.
• [2] – Even ignoring individual initiative, it’s as if this administration is the first in recorded human history to "mak(e) it possible for American entrepreneurs to create and grow businesses that will put people to work." She’s kidding, right?
• [3] – The total number of employees in "Heavy and civil engineering construction" was 888,000 in August (not seasonally adjusted). Even if you try to include a healthy percentage of the 2.1 million employed in the "Nonresidential specialty trade contractors" sector, many of whom obviously have nothing to do with infrastructure, there’s no way you get to "millions" of infrastructure workers, period, let alone "millions" who are working solely because of the administration’s "quick and bold actions."
• [4] – Seriously now, who has suggested this, or any of the other conveniently created straw men that follow?

Yes, Bush administration Labor Secretary Elaine Chao did give Labor Day addresses such as this one in 2002. But if she had created something as blatant as this video, the press would have been all over her for playing politics during the entire Labor Day weekend. As it is, I doubt we’ll see much if any criticism of Solis from the establishment press.

In a separate action, DOL removed the following opening paragraph from a web page on the history of Labor Day (original preserved at archive.org; revised) that had contained the same text for at least eight years:

“Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country,” said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. “All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day…is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.”

More on why I believe that removal of Gompers’s statement occurred can be found here.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.

A Washington Post news story earlier week served to demonstrate that mainstream media journalists apply the same prism overseas as they do domestically when covering illegal immigration and the Ground Zero mosque: When an overwhelming majority of the public goes against the media’s position, journalists see division and portray politicians sharing the majority position as causing rancor.

Case in a point: An article from Paris on page A6 of the Tuesday, August 31, Washington Post, “Crackdown on Roma divides French: Unease grows as Sarkozy razes camps, expels residents,” in which the newspaper’s Edward Cody led: “Much of France has returned from summer vacation in a rancorous mood, disturbed by a crackdown ordered by President Nicolas Sarkozy against illegal Roma camps and naturalized immigrant youths who attack police in troubled suburbs.” Yes, the French people are “disturbed” that the police are reacting against immigrants who attack them.

Cody proceeded to assert “the unease over the action against illegal Roma immigrants, most from Romania and Bulgaria, has been particularly strong, with the expulsions drawing criticism at home and abroad.” Indeed, “for many, such policies undermine France’s idea of itself as a haven for exiles and a beacon for human rights. Similar fears of intolerance were raised in July when, at Sarkozy’s urging, the National Assembly passed a law banning women from wearing full-face Islamic veils in public.”

Those Cody cited were hardly the citizenry, but Sarkozy’s political opponents and meddling foreigners, starting with how “a U.N. human rights panel sharply criticized Sarkozy’s actions against the Roma camps last week and called on him to halt the campaign. Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in French to make sure the message was received, called on Catholics to respect human diversity.” Cody also maintained: “In the political arena, the policies have generated protests from Sarkozy’s opponents, on the right as well as the left.”

Not until the 7th paragraph did Cody relay some information that undermined his entire premise and explained why a politician like Sarkozy would be pursuing policies that supposedly enraged the electorate:

In a recent poll, two-thirds of those queried approved of the campaign, suggesting the policy might provide at least temporary gains as Sarkozy maneuvers to set the stage for reelection in 2012.

Cody’s next sentence should have been: “Never mind.”

The Labor Department announced the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point, to 9.6 percent in August so, as the AP noted, it “has exceeded 9 percent for 16 straight months,” while the economy lost 54,000 jobs. Yet, without avoiding the dire numbers, ABC, CBS and NBC managed to find a “mixed picture,” “mixed bag” or even a “silver lining” for President Obama and Democrats two months before election day.

“It’s a mixed picture here, but it’s giving some encouragement to those who are out there looking, some who are hanging onto their jobs and their businesses by a thread,” Brian Williams insisted on Friday’s NBC Nightly News. On the CBS Evening News, fill-on anchor Erica Hill saw “a bit of a mixed bag” before Anthony Mason asserted that “weak as the job numbers were, they were better than Wall Street expected” and he touted: “With American businesses creating 67,000 jobs in August, the private sector has now added jobs for eight straight months.”

Over on ABC, fill-in anchor David Muir elevated Obama’s spin, teasing World News: “More jobs lost and the President, just today, taking the Republicans on. Are they standing in the way?” He introduced the subsequent story: “This country lost another 54,000 jobs in August, and the President today took on the Republicans, saying they’re the ones blocking help for small business.”

In a lengthy set up leading into a report from Jake Tapper, Muir trumpeted:

But some economists say there is still a silver lining in these new numbers, because if you take away the 115,000 temporary government jobs – those Census jobs we knew were going away — a slightly different picture emerges. The crucial private sector actually adding 67,000 workers in August, health care and construction leading the way. And that comes after the private sector added 107,000 in July, 61,000 in June…

Nice that Muir realizes the private sector is “crucial”!
 
Earlier today, from Julia Seymour of the MRC’s Business & Media Institute: “CNN’s ‘Glass One-Quarter Full’ Spin: Emphasize Private Job Gains”

David Muir, on the Friday, September 3 ABC World News:

We do turn now to the political storm brewing in Washington over the new jobs numbers out today. This country lost another 54,000 jobs in August, and the President today took on the Republicans, saying they’re the ones blocking help for small business. That, in a moment, but first, the numbers.

Word that the nation’s employers cut another 54,000 jobs in August, marks the third month in a row that this country has seen a net loss of jobs. But some economists say there is still a silver lining in these new numbers, because if you take away the 115,000 temporary government jobs – those Census jobs we knew were going away — a slightly different picture emerges. The crucial private sector actually adding 67,000 workers in August, health care and construction leading the way. And that comes after the private sector added 107,000 in July, 61,000 in June. It’s growth, but still not the number of private sector jobs needed to keep one the nearly 15 million Americans still looking for work.

And as I mentioned, the President was quick today to frame the numbers his way and so lets turn right now to Jake Tapper.

CBS Evening News:

ERICA HILL: Back home, a new sign the economic recovery will be a long, slow journey. Today the Labor Department reported private businesses added 67,000 jobs in August, but overall the economy lost jobs as the Census Bureau laid off more temporary workers. And the unemployment rate inched up to a tenth of a point, a tenth of a point, rather, to 9.6 percent. Wall Street was encouraged by the news that businesses are hiring, though. The Dow jumped 128 points today for its first positive close week in a month. Anthony Mason is our senior business correspondent. So overall, Anthony, it’s a bit of a mixed bag?

ANTHONY MASON: Yeah Erica, weak as the job numbers were, they were better than Wall Street expected and seemed to give investors confidence the economy can avoid a double-dip recession. With American businesses creating 67,000 jobs in August, the private sector has now added jobs for eight straight months…

Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News:

Turning to the U.S. economy and the latest reading on the job market for August. Employers cut 54,000 workers from their payrolls, less than what analysts had predicted. The unemployment rate ticked up a notch: 9.6 percent now as discouraged workers restarted their job search. It’s a mixed picture here, but it’s giving some encouragement to those who are out there looking, some who are hanging onto their jobs and their businesses by a thread…

A recurring rubric at James Taranto’s Best of the Web Today column at the Wall Street Journal online, is "We Blame George W. Bush," for tongue-in-cheek examples of the previous prez being panned for things palpably beyond his purview.  Let’s add another one to the list.  Dem senator Russ Feingold has blamed his tough re-election race on, yes, W.

Let’s think about that. If Bush were such a bad president.  If his policies were so disastrous for the country. Wouldn’t that boost the chances of an incumbent Dem senator who, like Feingold, had voted against Bush policies every step of the way?

Hey, I don’t try to understand Dem reasoning: I just report it.  Feingold made his logic-defying allegation on this evening’s Ed Show.

ED SCHULTZ: Even the progressive Russ Feingold is in a real tough fight for his seat in Wisconsin.  Senator Feingold is a progressive—as progressive as you can get—he voted against the Iraq war, he voted against the Patriot Act, he voted against the Wall Street bailouts; all very strong progressive positions. But somehow we’ve gotten to the point where the less a candidate knows about Washington it seems the better off they are, and now Feingold, a guy who has always fought the good liberal fight is up against a candidate who is trying to buy the election so he can go to Washington and extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

Senator Russ Feingold joins us tonight, here on the Ed Show. Senator, good to have you with us tonight.  You know, you have been one of the most hard-working guys out there.  You do over 70 town hall meetings a year.  What are you hearing in Wisconsin? And why are you polling below 50%?

RUSS FEINGOLD: Well, this is a year of challenges because of the mess that was left us from the Bush years.

Wait a second, Russ! If Bush were so awful, and you fought Bush every step of the way as Ed documented, wouldn’t that make you a winner in Wisconsin?  Could it possibly be that, now under Obama and a Dem congress, W [to quote those old Cross Your Heart commercials] is looking "suddenly shaplier"?

Gallup might be seeing an historic spread in the Republicans’ favor, and even Mark Halperin is predicting a GOP gain of as many as 60 seats. But amidst all the panic and gnashing of teeth, the Dems still can count on one true believer: Bill Press.

Former California Dem chairman Press has predicted that when results come in on Election Night, GOP leader John Boehner’s office will be a "morgue," while Pelosi’s place while Pelosi’s place is "where the party’s going to be."

Press proferred his hyper-optimistic prediction on this evening’s Ed Show, reacting to the report that Ohio talk radio host Bill Cunningham will be broadcasting from Boehner’s office on Election Night.  For good measure, Press—ironically no fan of the First Amendment, apparently—expressed disappointment that it was legal for Cunningham to do so.

Let’s make sure Press’s prediction is duly noted.  See you on November 2nd, Bill.

ED SCHULTZ: Bill Cunningham, radio talk show host out of Ohio, who’s a severe righty, is saying that he is going to be broadcasting from The Tan Man’s–John Boehner’s–office on Election Night.

BILL PRESS: Well first of all, I checked. It is legal, in the House, for members can allow broadcasters to broadcast from their offices, I’m sorry, I’m sorry to say . . . But I’ve got to tell you, Ed, so it’s legal to be there, but if I were Bill Cunningham I’d stay home. Because once the results come in, it’s going to be like a morgue in Boehner’s office. You and I, you and I ought to broadcast, Ed, you and I ought to broadcast from Nancy Pelosi’s balcony.  That’s where the party’s going to be.

Check the mirthful reaction of GOP strategist John Feehery. Even Ed had to chuckle at Press’s prediction.
 

On Tuesday’s Situation Room, CNN’s Jack Cafferty revisited one of his favorite subjects of ire, the Catholic Church, and this time called for the ordination of women. Cafferty highlighted the advertising campaign of a British organization which demands that Pope Benedict XVI allow for such simulations of ordination, and mocked a Catholic priest’s defense of the all-male priesthood.

The commentator devoted his 6 pm Eastern hour Cafferty File segment to the issue of women’s ordination: "’Pope Benedict: ordain women now‘- that’s the message that will be plastered on London buses when the pontiff heads to England’s capital in a couple of weeks. A group called Catholic Women’s Ordination is spending $15,000 for 15 buses to carry posters with that message around London for a month."

Cafferty then moved to the opposing viewpoint, and wasted little time before bashing it and one of its defenders: "Father Stephen Wang says women are not barred from the priesthood because of sexism….Wang says that Jesus chose 12 men, and no women, to be his apostles, and he adds that men and women are equal in Christianity, but that gender still matters. Wang compares the role of a priest to an actor, saying no one would be surprised if he wanted a male actor to play King Arthur. He then admits the analogy is weak. That’s the most startling and profound thing he said in the message so far- terrible!"

CNN’s "belief" blog (yes, the network has one) ran an article on Monday which gave further excerpts from Father Wang’s recent column on the priesthood: "Men and women are equal in Christianity, he continues, but ‘this does not mean that our sexual identity as men and women is interchangeable. Gender is not just an accident.’ He [Father Wang] compared the role of a priest to that of an actor playing King Arthur…’No one would be surprised if I said I wanted a male actor to play the lead,’ he said, admitting the analogy was ‘weak.’ But, he said, ‘it shouldn’t surprise us if we expect a man to stand in the person of Christ as a priest, to represent Jesus in his humanity – a humanity that is not sexually neutral.’"

Cafferty later noted that "in addition to the bus campaign, the women’s group plans to hold a vigil the day before the Pope’s visit, and they plan to demonstrate outside the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury." That may seem a bit off, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, as he is the honorary chief cleric of Anglicanism, but the commentator didn’t explain that the planned protest will take place when Pope Benedict is meeting with the archbishop. He added that "in 1994, then-pope, John Paul II, declared the Catholic Church has no authority to ordain women, and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now pope, agreed with him."

After reading his "Question of the Hour," the CNN personality remarked to anchor Wolf Blitzer that "you could probably find people if you tried, Wolf, or even if you didn’t try very hard, who would tell you it’s way past time." Blitzer replied, "I know a lot of people agree with you on that, Jack- a lot of people out there."

Just before the top of the 7 pm Eastern hour, Cafferty read some of his viewer replies. Only one defended the Catholic position:

CAFFERTY: Joanne in Pennsylvania writes, ‘It’s past time! There is a great need for priests, especially in the United States. We don’t know for sure that Jesus only choose 12 men, since it was men who decided what texts went into the New Testament. I think it is tradition, and not doctrine, that has kept women from becoming priests.’

Guillermo writes, ‘I completely agree with Father Wang. Similar to babies being born from women only, the role of the priesthood was established for men only. As simple as Father Wang indicates it, the priest represents Jesus- a man.’

‘Y’ writes, ‘If I were a woman, I’d tell the Catholic Church to take a hike. Why be obsequious to these clowns? The golden days of white male dominance are over.’

Joe in Houston writes, ‘As an ordained minister of the Church of Apathetic Agnostics, I don’t believe there’s any way I could care any less.’

Anthony in New Jersey: ‘As a disavowed Catholic, I think the Church should just take down its shingle and declare moral bankruptcy. They demonize homosexuals, abuse children, and treat women like second-class citizens. They’re still in the Middle Ages, as our friends, the Islamic radicals. If a religion can’t teach tolerance and acceptance as their main precept, then they ought to just disband, and get out of the way of progress.’

Barker writes, ‘The Anglican Church is basically the Catholic Church, except you can have women priests and the priests can marry. It seems to have worked fine for the Anglicans and the Episcopalians for the last few centuries, and you don’t see all the scandals with them that you see with the Catholic priests.’

And Dick writes, ‘Oh my goodness, no! The only things that remain the way the Almighty intended are the Catholic Church and the white male-only country clubs in South Carolina.’

Cafferty has long had an axe to grind against the Catholic Church. During a March 19, 2009 commentary, he attacked the pope’s comment against the effectiveness of condoms in reducing the spread of HIV in Africa: "It’s time- it is past time for the Catholic Church to enter the 21st century, or at least try to drag itself out of the 13th century." Earlier in 2010, Cafferty devoted five commentaries over the course of 20 days to blasting both Benedict XVI and the Church.

Overall, CNN fares no better, with consistently slanted coverage against the Church. For example, during a March 26, 2010 segment, anchor Kyra Phillips endorsed the agenda of three guests who agitate for politically-correct changes inside the Catholic Church, including women’s ordination and the acceptance of homosexual behavior: "I think all three of you need to head to the Vatican and institute some change."

Monday’s NBC Nightly News re-ran the very same exchange between Brian Williams and President Barack Obama as had aired on Sunday’s Nightly News (as well as Monday’s Today show) in which Williams despaired over how “you’re an American-born Christian. And yet, increasing and now significant numbers of Americans in polls, upwards of a fifth of respondents are claiming you are neither….This has to be troubling to you.” Obama responded: “I can’t spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.”

Picking up on that line, Williams teased his Monday newscast: “Keeping the faith. In his interview with us, President Obama makes a comment about his own background that has already ricocheted around the world.”

The subsequent interview excerpt began with a discussion of Obama’s comments about the mosque near Ground Zero, an exchange which had not aired Sunday night or Monday morning, followed by a re-run of the Muslim/citizen misconceptions. For details, check my Sunday night NB post: “Brian Williams Treats Obama as Oracle of Wisdom…”

NBC has yet to air a particularly sycophantic “question” Williams posed in the interview, conducted Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, which can be seen in the full 22-minute session posted on MSNBC.com:

And finally, I’m hoping to find you in a reflective mood on a cloudy day. We’re the first to speak to you coming off your summer vacation. How does it re-charge you, what do you think about, what do you see, what do you read about, how are you thinking about your job these days?