CNN Treats Radical Father Pfleger as Less Controversial Than TV Priest

NewsBusters.org ^ | 5/8/2009 | Matthew Balan

[Pyro7480]

Two Catholic priests who appeared as guests during back-to-back segments on Thursday’s No Bias, No Bull program were treated noticeably differently by CNN’s on-air personalities. Father Michael Pfleger of the Archdiocese of Chicago, who is best known for his racially-charged rhetoric against Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic presidential race, as well as his defense of former Obama pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, faced only a couple of pointed questions, most notably about his recent decision to fly an American flag upside-down. In the following segment, Father Mitch Pacwa of the orthodox Catholic TV network EWTN faced a more skeptical and sustained line of questioning from the CNN panel about the practice of priestly celibacy.

Anchor Roland Martin brought on Father Pfleger 43 minutes into the 8 pm Eastern hour of the CNN program to talk about his continuing push against street violence in Chicago, especially when it involves minors, as 36 school-aged children so far this year have been violently killed . He only introduced the priest as the “pastor of the faith community of Saint Sabina from the South Side of Chicago.” Neither he nor any of the other journalists participating in the panel mentioned any of Father Pfleger’s past controversies during the segment....

[Pyro7480]

Father Pfleger gets kid-glove treatment, while the faithful EWTN priest gets the cross-examination.

[Pyro7480]

Catholic ping!

[Petronski]

Anti-Catholic bigotry* is very fashionable these days, though exceptions are made for the far-left fakes and nutjobs.

[FlingWingFlyer]

You can be the mother of all homophobes but if you appear on CNN and start bashing, America, Americans and conservatives, CNN will treat you like a queen.

[markomalley]

Well, if they’re going to shine the bright lights and break out the rubber hoses on a priest (i.e., tough interrogation), I can think of no priest better able to explain the position of the Church than Fr. Mitch Pacwa.

[SuziQ]

Of course they’d love Father Phleger; he’s nominally (at best) Catholic, while Father Pacwa actually believes in the teachings of Jesus and His Church.

[Coleus]

.

[mbraynard]

Does that guy on the right look like a black Stay Puff Marshmellow man or what?

[Straight Vermonter]

A lot of the commentary I have heard on this Fr Cutie issue seems to be focused on the issue of priests marrying. Whether or not priests can marry is irrelevant since Fr Cutie was NOT married to the woman he was with. As a layman I can marry but I’d be in big trouble too if I was rolling around on the beach with a woman who was not my wife.

[Arthur McGowan]

Anyone who doesn’t believe in Predestination—what do you say about a priest named Fr. Cutie?

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