Dan Proft: Understanding the Sun-Times' Attack on Religion

Urquhart Media, LLC ^ | 2/20/08 | Dan Proft

[JulianaJohnson]

Is the Chicago Sun-Times, currently on the auction block, hoping to be purchased by either Bill Maher or Christopher Hitchens?

In a staff editorial yesterday arguing that Mike Huckabee's continued presence in the Republican race for President is actually aiding John McCain by making McCain look more moderate, the Sun-Times issues the following edict, "Huckabee has no chance of being elected president. And thank God for that, too. This is a man who believes the world was created in six days." (Click here: http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/801030,CST-EDT-edit19b.article)

There are two ways to react to this.

We could demand to know which of the aspiring Hemingways penned this perspicacious real politick prose.

We could take this snide remark seriously and push back against it, pointing to the irony of thanking God in one sentence and ridiculing creationism in the next.

We could further mention that were Huckabee to be elected President, the rest of the nation would not share the shock of the Sun-Times to learn of his belief in Scripture as that would make Huckabee the 44th out of 44 Presidents of the United States to have expressed such faith in the Almighty (though admittedly some were more believable on this score than others).

But to react in such a way is to miss the point of the Sun-Times' desperate gag.

In the last two years, the Sun-Times Media Group has lost 75% of its market cap. Since April of last year, its stock price has gone down 82%. The Sun-Times is hemorrhaging advertising and employees-and that is after combining the Daily Southtown with its local Star Newspaper Group.

In other words, given its current market position, a savvy investor could purchase the Sun-Times for a handful of magic beans.

Thus, the Huckabee piece in question was nothing more than a pathetically, frantic effort by the Sun-Times editorial board to be provocative in the hopes of being relevant. Maybe another commuter or two buys a paper to find out if Drew Peterson could be a flower, what kind of flower he would choose to be.

I concede that it is difficult to figure out where the ignorance of the Sun-Times management ends and their desperation begins.

But, in spite of some very good investigative journalists and political reporters, what is crystal clear is that the Sun-Times ceased to be a journalistic enterprise long ago.

The ethics of its decision makers are as much for sale as everything else in the building that isn't nailed down, except for Richard Roeper's secret for how he stays so gosh darn contemporary.

A selection from the evidence room includes: • After the 2006 election, former Sun-Times Publisher John Cruickshank explained that the Sun-Times endorsed Todd Stroger for Cook County Board President for "business reasons" to pander to its alleged black readership. • Did someone say Todd Stroger? Speaking of patronage hiring, Cruickshank's wife, Jennifer Hunter, was given a spot on the Sun-Times' editorial board and a reoccurring column devoted to reprinting Barack Obama's press releases during Cruickshank's tenure. You'll remember Hunter's pieces on Obama as those that would have been more appropriate for her Hello Kitty diary. • Most incredible of all: Current Sun-Times Media Group CEO Cyrus Friedheim is facing possibly extradition to Colombia for prosecution in connection with financing paramilitary death squads (designated by the U.S. State Department as terrorists) in Colombia while in his previous position as CEO of Chiquita Brands International. (Chiquita pled guilty in U.S. federal court last year and agreed to pay a $25 million fine). The families of the victims of these death squads want and deserve justice.

The next time you choose to subject yourself to the condescending prattling on about "social justice" from moralizing, self-styled good government "progressives" at the Sun-Times like, say, Carol Marin, keep in mind who they have obediently worked for and the corporate culture to which they have dutifully submitted, with nary a word of public disclosure much less protestation.

Soon the thrashing will stop and this sickly paper, ravaged by intellectual vacuity, liberal orthodoxy (I repeat myself), rank hypocrisy, and managerial stupidity will be laid to rest.

In His Name, I pray. ________________________________________

Dan Proft is a Principal of Urquhart Media LLC, a Chicago-based public affairs firm and political commentator for the Don Wade & Roma Morning Show (5-9am) on Chicago's number one news talk radio station, WLS-AM 890. He can be reached at dan@urqmedia.com.

For other Dan Proft commentaries (radio & print), please visit: http://www.urqmedia.com/proft/

For other recent Don Wade & Roma interviews, commentary, and discussions visit: http://www.wlsam.com/sectional.asp?id=16410

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[DManA]

At least the editorial staff capitalized God.

[Da Coyote]

Near as I can figure, believeing the earth was created in six days won’t affect me much. Believing that all Mexicans deserve US health care and social security does. Cooperating with liberals does. Infringing on free speech rights does. I wish the lib-O-papers would get off this religeon kick. If they want to yelp about screwy religeous beliefs, they might try looking at that wacky Hollywood group...or even better...at Islam.

[BunkDetector]

Isn’t the Sun-Times Chicago’s conservative newspaper vis-a-vis the liberal Tribune?

[squidly]

There was a reason that my favorite liberal columnist, Mike Royko, refused to work for the Sun Times.

[sageb1]

A little more about Dan Proft.

[piytar]

I truly believe God did create the world in six days - six of HIS days, that is.

No reason God’s day has any relation to ours since He pre-dated our Sun and Earth and probably even our universe....

[DManA]

He reveals Himself to us though His Word and through nature. If there seems to be a conflict between the two then either we misunderstand the clues in nature, or we are misinterpreting the Word. The only conflict is in our own minds.

[longtermmemmory]

Sometimes I think the chattering class prefer the people argue over which end of the egg to open. (appologies to Guliver’s Travels)

[ChiefBoatswain]

You are 100% correct. Which is why the early religious leaders in the country wanted to be certain that the new government would not get involved in religion. They had seen what happends when government and religion combine, which is what Europe was at the time. Religion was just another department of government.

Governments necessarily work to compromise, that's the way it's gotta be sometimes. That means that if you combine government and religion that there will be issues that you, or I, or both, will have to compromise on.

So, in the interests of religious freedom, we need to keep government out of religion. What a lot of people miss is that religion, therefore, must keep religion out of government. Huckabee showed me that he didn't get it when he said that he wanted "to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards." In order to do that would mean setting up a government operation to determine what those standards are, and to codify them into law. And when you put things into law, then you enforce them.

Now to your point about ...misinterpreting the Word. Let's keep that point in mind and not create law based on misinterpretations. Let's not forget that the Pharisees used "the law" effectively 2,000 years ago.

The reason isn't to limit religion, but to keep religion from being corrupted by government.