Right wing and Tea Party media groups are attacking major media outlets that — rightly — have equated the Penn State child sex abuse and rape scandal with the Catholic Church’s pedophile priests scandal, and instead are pointing the finger — wrongly and ignorantly — at homosexuals. Last week,”Newsbusters” took umbrage with Brian Williams and NBC News, and this week, “The New American” went even further, citing “predatory homosexual behavior” as the cause of the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal.
In “NBC Uses Penn State Scandal to Slam Catholic Church,” Newsbusters, a creation of frequent Fox News contributor and founder of questionable media watchdog organizations, Brent Bozell, offered, apparently as examples of “liberal media bias,” these statements:
Brian Williams: “A lot of people watching this scandal unfold at Penn State, watching the human damage pile up, watching an institution get badly soiled, can’t help but think of the scandal that rocked the Catholic Church in America. There are a lot of parallels.”
Anne Thompson:Â “Almost ten years ago, the Boston Globe broke the story of priests abusing minors and the cover-up by Church officials, shattering the Archdiocese and the faith of many American Catholics. One of its reporters sees parallels in the Penn State case….Critics say these are institutions of power, secrecy, mythology, dominated by men who circled the wagons in a crisis.”
and
“In today’s New York Times, Jonathan Mahler writes both the Church and Penn State, ‘In the face of a moral imperative to act, chose silence,’ failing to live up to their own ideals of integrity and honor.”
But what was even more outrageous than suggesting these journalists were wrong to equate the two scandals was the attack from “The New American,” a product of the radical right wing John Birch Society, which itself is a forerunner of the Tea Party.
“It was inevitable the connection would be made. When Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky … was arrested on November 4, after years of allegedly molesting boys with the knowledge of superiors who didn’t stop him, everyone knew what was coming. It wouldn’t be long before the media brought up the Catholic Church and its tribulations with homosexual molesters.
“Sure enough, as Newsbusters reported on Friday, NBC and the New York Times obliged, linking the two scandals.
“Problem is, the media again got the story wrong, fixating on powerful institutions trying to protect themselves instead of the obvious: predatory homosexual behavior.”
Yes, “predatory homosexual behavior” via Jerry Sandusky, a 67-year old man married for most of his life, who, along with his wife have four children, have raised another six adopted children, and fostered countless others.
Why is it the radical right, and Republicans, and the Tea Party all love to think the meaning of “pedophilia” is “homosexuality”?
As The New Civil Rights Movement has written before, homosexuality is an innate trait fixed at birth, while pedophilia is a psychological disorder.
This is the same argument that has allowed the Catholic Church to ignore its centuries-old pedophile priests problem, and it’s just plain wrong.
Additionally, the problem is not just that it’s not homosexuality that’s the cause,but complete an total irresponsibility from those entrusted with out greatest assets, our children.
When will these supposedly “pro-life” patriots get a grip and actually protect those who are alive?