Archbishop: CNN, MSNBC, New York Times Untrustworthy for Religious News
News outlets such as CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times are not trustworthy when it comes to covering religion, according to Philadelphia’s incoming Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput.
The Catholic official spoke recently in Madrid, Spain at the Catholic World Youth Day, and expressed his disgust with the news organizations.
Chaput preached to a crowd of over 10,000 young believers on Wednesday.
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“In the United States, our battles over abortion, family life, same-sex marriage, and other sensitive issues have led to ferocious public smears and legal threats not only of Catholics, but also against Mormons, evangelicals, and other religious believers,” said Chaput to the crowd.
“And with relatively few exceptions, the mass media tend to cover these disputed issues with a combination of ignorance, laziness, and bias against traditional Christian belief,” he said.
He feels that Catholics along with most religious people are mistaken if they rely on media outlets such as The New York Times, Newsweek and CNN for trustworthy and fair coverage on religion.
The Archbishop stated that these news outlets fail to provide reliable information about religious faith due to limited resources or because of their own editorial prejudices.
“These are secular operations focused on making a profit,” he said. “They have very little sympathy for the Catholic faith, and quite a lot of aggressive skepticism toward any religious community that claims to preach and teach God’s truth.”
The Archbishop added that the U.S. media gave a lot of coverage to the so called “Arab Spring,” which involved civil unrest in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. But feels they ignore much of what Christians endure in those nations failing to cover persecution stories such as angry mobs in Egypt attacking churches and monasteries, burning them to the ground and killing those inside.
Chaput also spoke about nations such as Iraq, Syria and Tunisia, and how it is illegal to own a Bible or wear a crucifix in those countries. He feels the U.S. media gives very little attention to those suffering from lack of religious freedom in those areas.
According to Chaput, forcing religion out of the public square can be detrimental to society in the U.S.
“Forcing religious faith out of a nation’s public square and out of a country’s public debates does not serve democracy,” said the Archbishop. “It doesn’t serve real tolerance or pluralism. What it does do is impose a kind of unofficial state atheism.”
This type of action enforces a new kind of state sponsored intolerance, or a religion without God, according to Chaput.
