extreme Catholic 

I have returned from my parish's Stations of the Cross. I'm listening to the news on FOX 5 NY and hear a voice saying "no beverage tax on Jews." It turns out I'm not the only one to have heard (misheard) it. Google Search The controversy seems to be whether it was intentional or not. From context, it would appear the word is "juice". Woody Allen in one of his movies suggested that calling a menu item "Roast Beef au jus" was antisemitic.

I look forward to celebrations of Passover and Easter, where ethnic and religious slurs are so remote in history that it doesn't enter the popular culture each year.

Labels: advertising, anti-semetism, catholic, media

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:25 PM   Permalink  

To unpack this question, the "media" represents three groups: reality, diversion, and advocacy. "Hate" means more the opposition at an intellectual level, but delight in and working actively for the destruction of the object of hatred. "Reality" spans everything from a news blog to an encyclopedia where the media consumer expects either an absence of advocacy or balanced presentation of the several sides of controversy. But reality is so boring, it gets blurred into diversion and advocacy.

The "reality" of reality is that unless it is taxpayer-funded there needs to be advertisers in the picture to make it "mass communication" to attract an audience. You attract an audience by being entertaining, or attracting the like-minded in advocacy, or even better in both modes.

Not every person who is an abortion advocate is also a gay marriage advocate or even a advocate of requiring the Catholic Church to ordain women. But there's a uniform code of political opinion maintained in news and editorial offices and it's enforced by looking at the trail the internet leaves behind in their blogs and social media as people attempt to enter the media club. You will find the least diversity of opinion in places where the left wants to wear a mask of objectivity.

They don't formally carry an anti-Catholic label, they don't need to, it just worked out that way. The edge of political, social, and cultural change in the United States always seems to be pointed in the opposite direction of where the Catholic Church is pointing. So it's not enough for Catholics to go into a bunker but to push back. How dare we do so. The first people we have to persuade are fellow Catholics who are even now unaware of the target painted on the side of their Church.

Labels: anti-catholic, media

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:29 AM   Permalink