Bill Donohue and the Catholic League have protested the choice of bloggers at the Democratic convention in Denver. Despite the list of bloggers having been public for almost three months, Donohue has suddenly discovered that Democratic bloggers have some explicit hostility to the Catholic Church, or are just extremists. Donohue wants the DNCC to disinvite them with a week to go before the start of the party in Denver:
“The list of credentialed blogs include radical sites like The Daily Kos. Worse are blogs that feature anti-Catholic and obscene material. The two most offensive are Bitch Ph.D. and Towleroad.
“On the home page of Bitch Ph.D. there is a picture of two children: one of them is shown flashing his middle finger. Today’s lead post, which was written August 17, is called ‘Jesus Christ.’ It begins with, ‘I’m a really crappy Catholic who hasn’t been to mass in ages because most parishes around here ‘will’ insist on being aggressively anti-abortion….’ The writer then objects to some children’s toys on the grounds that they are more offensive than desecrating the Eucharist. The toys are actually balloons that have been made to depict Jesus in various poses, including a crucified Christ; one of these images shows Jesus with a penis. Several who commented on this image made patently obscene comments.
“Towleroad describes itself as ‘A Site with Homosexual Tendencies.’ Accordingly, it shows men in jock straps and underwear. It also has a post on Pope Benedict XVI that takes him to task for wearing a cape with ermine. Some of those who commented on this described the pope in a vile and profane way.
“Both of these blogs should be cut immediately from the list of credentialed sites. Neither functions as a responsible media outlet and both offend Catholics, as well as others. To allow them access to the Democratic National Convention sends a message to Catholics they will not forget. We look for Leah Daughtry, CEO of the Convention, to nix them ASAP.”
Maybe the DNCC can ask Donohue what took him so long to do his research. Most of this is just plain silly, a typical overreaction from Donohue. He wants one blogger banned because he criticized the Pope’s clothes, and some of the commenters were rude? That’s even more petty than the original criticism. As for Daily Kos, can one imagine the Democratic Party telling Markos Moulitsas Zuniga to take a hike? Uh … sure.
Out of 120 blogs, these three are all that Donohue finds objectionable. I’d call that remarkable in itself.
If I were Donohue, I’d focus more on the candidate the convention will nominate, rather than the bloggers who will report on it. Besides, the worst thing the Democrats could do for Donohue would be to accommodate this demand. The more hostility the Democrats display to pro-life activists and Catholics, the better the American people can truly assess the party and what it represents.
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