Most everyone who reads this blog has probably heard by now of the bloggers hired by the Edwards campaign who had written some blog posts before being hired by Edwards that vulgarly criticized some doctrines of the Catholic Church. Edwards reprimanded the bloggers but refused to fire them. Both Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan have quit to prevent themselves from being further liabilities to Edwards. They have each posted statements on their own blogs if you want to know more.
William Donahue, president of the conservative Catholic group the Catholic League who has made his own fair share of questionable statements, had been doing the rounds of cable news shows calling on Edwards to fire these bloggers, saying the Edwards campaign should have more thoroughly vetted them before hiring. The premise of his argument is that anti-Catholic bigotry is tacitly tolerated, while if it was found that bloggers had ever made anti-semitic, homophobic, or racist comments, they would have been immediately fired. Bill O'Reilly joined in last night on his show, cornering the president of Young Democrats of America and making her say that she wouldn't fire these women for saying what they wrote, but would fire someone who said something racist, homophobic, etc. (Fox News loves purporting to be fair and balanced by bringing on clueless and inarticulate Democrats that no one has ever heard of alongside prominent neo-conservatives).
The whole premise is flawed. Criticizing Catholic doctrine on things like birth control and abortion is not bigotry, and nothing either blogger said was criticizing the people who are Catholics although they obviously had the potential to offend many people who are Catholics. Criticizing doctrine, however vulgarly, is on a whole other level than actually maligning a whole group of people and does not equate to bigotry. I wouldn't personally go as far as to say the Catholic Church's prohibition on artificial birth control is meant to force women to "bear more tithing Catholics," but I wouldn't exactly call it an anti-catholic slur. They do say more vulgar things in other posts and I do believe bloggers should be held accountable for the things they write and should expect to be attacked for them.
At the same time it's pretty interesting that when John McCain hires a blogger named Patrick Hynes who also has a questionable past as well as media staff responsible for ads he criticized, it barely causes a stir. These stories don't fit into the media-created image of Saint McCain as the straight-talking maverick. The media only dwell on stories like this when they fit into the "foul-mouthed atheist liberal bloggers" paradigm.
William Donahue, president of the conservative Catholic group the Catholic League who has made his own fair share of questionable statements, had been doing the rounds of cable news shows calling on Edwards to fire these bloggers, saying the Edwards campaign should have more thoroughly vetted them before hiring. The premise of his argument is that anti-Catholic bigotry is tacitly tolerated, while if it was found that bloggers had ever made anti-semitic, homophobic, or racist comments, they would have been immediately fired. Bill O'Reilly joined in last night on his show, cornering the president of Young Democrats of America and making her say that she wouldn't fire these women for saying what they wrote, but would fire someone who said something racist, homophobic, etc. (Fox News loves purporting to be fair and balanced by bringing on clueless and inarticulate Democrats that no one has ever heard of alongside prominent neo-conservatives).
The whole premise is flawed. Criticizing Catholic doctrine on things like birth control and abortion is not bigotry, and nothing either blogger said was criticizing the people who are Catholics although they obviously had the potential to offend many people who are Catholics. Criticizing doctrine, however vulgarly, is on a whole other level than actually maligning a whole group of people and does not equate to bigotry. I wouldn't personally go as far as to say the Catholic Church's prohibition on artificial birth control is meant to force women to "bear more tithing Catholics," but I wouldn't exactly call it an anti-catholic slur. They do say more vulgar things in other posts and I do believe bloggers should be held accountable for the things they write and should expect to be attacked for them.
At the same time it's pretty interesting that when John McCain hires a blogger named Patrick Hynes who also has a questionable past as well as media staff responsible for ads he criticized, it barely causes a stir. These stories don't fit into the media-created image of Saint McCain as the straight-talking maverick. The media only dwell on stories like this when they fit into the "foul-mouthed atheist liberal bloggers" paradigm.
