Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
April 2, 2025 Column Father De Celles
Election: Media Bias. One of the strongest factors influencing voters in any election is the way the media covers the campaigns. But this is a problem if the media is dominantly biased toward one candidate, party or ideology.
This is huge problem today in America. Of course, this is nothing new: I remember how in about 1970, my Father (who was a Democrat then) used to call CBS “the Communist Broadcasting System.” But today it’s worse than ever, as the “legacy media” or “mainstream news” doesn’t even try to hide its leftist bias and support for Democrat Party Candidates and contempt for conservatives and Republicans and especially Donald Trump.
It is imperative that we recognize the very sad situation that almost all media reports are slanted, and that the mainstream outlets, including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC are heavily biased toward the left and against conservatives.
Consider this article from Valerie Richardson, The Washington Times, 10/13/24:
“CBS News showed that it can make news as well as cover it after a brutal week that saw the network add allegations of anti-Israel bias to its woes over its editing of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The network was criticized for admonishing “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil over his quizzing of author Ta-Nehisi Coates on his Israel-unfriendly book “The Message,” an interview that reportedly prompted a public reprimand at an Oct. 7 staff meeting and a round of diversity coaching.
“Then an internal memo surfaced with a head-scratching geography lesson about the location of Jerusalem. “Do not refer to it as being in Israel,” said Mark Memmott, CBS News senior director of standards and practices, in an August email to employees obtained by The Free Press. [Column Note: Jerusalem is officially recognized by the US government as the Capital of Israel].
“…The double-whammy on Israel comes with CBS under mounting pressure to release the full, unedited transcript of “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker’s interview with Ms. Harris that aired Oct. 5.
“A clip posted ahead of the interview shows Ms. Harris responding to a question about the Israel-Hamas war. During the interview, however, she was shown providing an entirely different answer to the same question.
“Meghan Hays, who served as communications director for the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign, called it a “huge unforced error by CBS.” The Harris camp has denied exerting any influence on CBS to edit the interview. [Column Note: So that the Democrat candidate didn’t even have to ask for this favorable biased treatment].
“In the Sept. 30 “CBS Mornings” interview, Mr. Dokoupil asked Mr. Coates why he didn’t mention the terrorist groups that have targeted Israelis in his book comparing Israel to the “Jim Crow South.”
“…Mr. Dokoupil has met with the network’s standards and practices team as well as its Race and Culture Unit [Column Note: emphasis added, and see below] …”
And then there’s this from “The Front Page,” The Free Press, 10/13:
“One last thing: Let’s just say we have pattern recognition around stories like these. So when two sources at CBS told The Free Press that this whole dustup involved the network’s ‘Race and Culture Unit,’ we weren’t shocked.
“According to the company’s website, this unit works ‘in concert with the CBS News Standards and Ethics department to ensure all stories have the proper context, tone, and intention.’ It was formed in the summer of 2020. ‘We must always be aware of how race and culture impacts our journalism—and, in terms of the future of CBS News, this unit will be as important as Standards and Practices,’ a CBS executive said at the time.
“‘These broad and subjective criteria have made them a very powerful voice and many employees believe this has allowed greater bias to creep into editorial decisions at the network,’ said one CBS News source to The Free Press. ‘You see bias when it’s something you don’t agree with.’”
And this from Brianna Lyman, The Federalist, 10/14/24:
“Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance blasted ABC’s Martha Raddatz on Sunday after she tried defending the invasion at the southern border that has led to violent gangs taking over entire apartment complexes.
“…During Sunday’s episode of ABC’s ‘This Week,’ Raddatz tried to defend the violent gang invasion after Vance noted that Coffman’s statement was nonetheless an acknowledgment of an issue to some degree.
“‘Sen. Vance, I’m going to stop you because I know exactly what happened,’ Raddatz said. ‘…The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes …and the mayor said ‘our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns.’ A handful of problems.’
“‘”Only?” Martha, do you hear yourself?’ Vance fired back. ‘Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’ open border? Americans are so fed up with what’s going on and they have every right to be, and I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.’
“‘They bragged about opening the border and now we have the consequences and we’re living with it,’ Vance continued. ‘We can do so much better, but frankly, we’re not going to do better, Martha, unless Donald Trump calls this stuff out. I’m glad that he did.’
“‘Okay. Let’s, let’s just, let’s just end that with they did not invade or take over the city as Donald Trump said. I want to move on to just —’ Raddatz said.
“‘A few apartment complexes, no big deal,’ Vance sarcastically shot back.”
ABC thinks it’s no big deal for a vicious foreign criminal gang to take over a multiple apartment complexes in a US city. WHAT? So as you approach your decision on who to vote for next month, do not let the mainstream media tell you how to vote.
Men’s Day of Recollection. I invite all the men of the parish, 18 years old and above to attend the 26th annual Christ the King Men’s Day of Recollection, which will be held on Saturday November 9 at St. Raymond’s. This year’s theme is: “Dignity and Integrity: How the Catholic Defense of the Human Person is Reflected in the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood.”
In the past this “retreat” has been given by Fr. Paul Scalia, but this year it be led by the inimitable Fr. Francis de Rosa, well known pro-life speaker, scholar and Pastor of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Colonial Beach, VA. Fr. de Rosa is a good friend of mine as is Fr. Scalia, and we are excited to have him join us this year. I encourage all the men of the parish to come and bring their friends from other parishes. There is no charge for this event, but you must register before Nov. 3 to attend. Register at www.waywomen.com/mensretreat
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles