Tag Archives: media

Catholic Crisis

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Here's a Washington Post article related to the previous post .

Catholics: Church in Midst of A 'Crisis'

"A growing majority of Catholics are sharply critical of the way the Roman Catholic Church has handled instances of child abuse by priests and believe the scandal has deeply tarnished the church's reputation, according to a national survey by The Washington Post, ABC News and Beliefnet.com. The survey suggests that weeks of media reports about priests who are sexual predators have led many devout Catholics to wrestle with long-held beliefs and assumptions about their church and its leaders."

Blog Ethics

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The following articles present blogs as something more than a fad, more than leisure-time rambling. Blogs can be a powerful tool. They offer a chance to bypass traditional media.

I have often heard that professional journalism is unbiased. Bullfeathers. If you've never read a liberally-slanted newspaper, watched a conservative news report, or listened to reactionary radio, you've had your head in the sand. Yes, blogs are inherently biased, but so is professional journalism. The difference is that bloggers don't pretend to be unbiased. What you see is what you get. It's raw, unrefined, and honest as hell. Sure, there's a lot of B.S. floating around out there. Heck, look at some of the crap I post. 😉 We have a choice, though, whether or not to accept it. When traditional news media claim to be presenting the whole, unadulterated truth, we tend to feel obligated to believe it. We're told it's the truth and that we can trust them and their sources. Weblogs, on the other hand, offer no promises. Take it or leave it. Make your own opinions. Hear all sides of story. If you read enough biased reports of an event, eventually the truth filters out. It's there in every point of view once you get by imperfect memories, prejudice, and emotions.

Now it's time I step off my soap box for a moment and go find some news bloggers.

P.S. I'd be a hypocrite if I completely bashed traditional news outlets. Obviously, I link to such sites. However, I offer my own opinions on matters reported on those pages and I encourage my readership (Hello? Is there anybody out there?) to do the same.

Are Bloggers Journalists?

The Blogging Revolution

Done any blogging lately?

Antidote to the Liberal Monotone: Blogging

Google Time Bomb

Borg Journalism

Defending the Church

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Now that I have a forum at my disposal, I'd like to take a stand against the Catholic bashing that has been going on since the priest scandal broke. As a start, I offer a well-written letter to the editor submitted to The Pitt News by a good friend (and the man who sponsored my confirmation 2 years ago).

Catholic teachings are not at fault by Gerald McClain

"The Newman Oratory Catholic Organization, as the official Roman Catholic organization on the Pitt campus, would like to take this opportunity to formally address the recent criticism the Church has received. We would like to acknowledge the current situation about pedophilic and ephebophilic priests, address the general attack the Church underwent recently in the Pitt News and finally address the Catholics here on the Pitt campus."