Bigotry in the Press: The Example of Newsweek

...Conversions were attributed to status-seeking, and the African Church was said to have a Roman preference for legalism, logic, and elitism" (August 11, 1969...

...That something like a personal hatred of Paul VI motivated Newsweek's attack was suggested in Whitmore's closing words...

...The magazine, obviously eager for the retirement of a man it regarded as an obstacle to progress, had through the psychiatrist, put the Pope in a Catch-22 situation--failure to resign his office was itself evidence of personality problems...

...Hence its blast at the Catholic "right wing" (including everyone from genuine extremists to cautious middle-of-theroaders...

...Neither Time nor Newsweek claims to present fully "objective" news: an editorial opinion is usually apparent in each magazine's coverage of events...

...Consider the coverage given to matters Catholic in the nation's two leading newsmagazines--Time and Newsweek-from the issuance in 1968 of Pope Paul VI's birth control encyclical, Humanae Vitae, to mid-1975...

...That Woodward himself was not exclusively responsible for Newsweek's biases was indicated in a signed dispatch by the magazine's Rome correspondent, James Whitmore, which descended to the level of tasteless and sometimes vicious ad hominem remarks...

...It failed to report anything that might reflect favorably on Catholic leadership, and abandoned even the semblance of fairness or balance...

...Newsweek hailed the meeting for its "historic significance," and described those voting against the censure as motivated by "traditional clerical docility" rather than by conviction...

...and answered, with evident satisfaction on the editors' part, "Yes...

...When contrasting gatherings of liberal and conservative clergy met in Europe, the magazine, while conceding some "extremism" on both sides, denominated the former a "meeting" and the latter a "claque...

...Thus the magazine implied that Bishop John J. Wright of Pittsburgh, called to Rome as a resident cardinal, had been "kicked upstairs" to get him out of the United States...

...Never in the past an upholder of the hierarchy, Newsweek now saw fit to warn against Catholic publications which were "independent of diocesan authorities...

...It is unclear whether the bias in Newsweek's pages was merely Woodward's own or that of his superiors...

...Both, however, claim that they do not distort or misinform, that they give readers accurate and balanced information...

...There were occasional instances in which the dissidents' position was subject to criticism, as in an article on the "new theologians" (November 13, 1972...

...For if the media paid the Church the compliment of thinking its activities newsworthy, they also turned on the institution a glaring light of publicity which ensured that virtually no problem or question could be dealt with in a leisured and discreet way...

...This time he declared the Pope incompetent, "a puppet of the papal household," and accused those who advised the Pontiff of "crude maneuvering" (August 26, 1968...

...In keeping with the magazines' style, readers were generally led to think that the forces of change were raising long-overdue questions about Church policy, which the hierarchy had an obligation to take seriously and respond to favorably...

...On the whole it could probably be said that Time, given its customary format, at least tried to be fair in dealing with Catholic subjects...

...From other equally faceless people came a description of the Pontiff as weak, out of touch, and garrulous, "like many old men...

...When a Jesuit wrote an article proposing that marriage for bishops be mandatory, Newsweek enthusiastically took it up (June 3, 1968...

...An essay by religion editor Mayo Mohs (November 15, 1971) described the Church as having a "nervous breakdown" and blandly quoted an unnamed priest who referred to the Pope as "one old man...

...Speculating about the Pope's possible retirement, Whitmore quoted an anonymous source saying that Paul regarded the papal office as his "personal property...

...Earlier (October 4, 1971) Woodward had told his readers that "...conservatism has been reduced to a sectarian movement in American Catholicism, led largely by disgruntled converts devoted to the hopeless task of preserving the church in a mold made by earlier generations...

...When Pope Paul proclaimed the 1975 Holy Year, one of Newsweek's anonymous sources obligingly said that "the Holy Year could turn out to be a holy flop...

...The point of Newsweek's attack on conservative Catholic journals was that they represented a noisy but eccentric point of view, wholly unrepresentative of the mainstream of the Church...

...Such a man is too anguished to act...

...ing in the Church, since the newsmagazine format seemingly imposed an iron necessity of casting all stories in terms of conflict, crises, attack, and counter-attack...

...When the Pope deplored "scandal and schism," it speculated that this might be the prelude to "an implemented counterattack against dissenters and defectors" (April 14, 1969...

...As the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 generated American popular interest in things Catholic, an interest perhaps unprecedented in our history, the secular media gave increasing coverage to Church activities...

...The Alternative: An American Spectator October 1976 19 An article about the marriage of priests failed even to mention the Church's reasons for requiring celibacy (October 21, 1968...

...However, the contrasting practice of Time and Newsweek showed there could be enormous differences even within the newsmagazine format...

...The article was another instance of biased and opinionated journalism sliding over into misrepresentation of facts...

...For the first five years in the period considered, Newsweek constantly favored dissent within the Church and represented the Church's leadership as unworthy and inept...

...On one occasion the magazine implied that Pope Paul VI favored clerical celebacy so he would not have to pay priests a family wage (November 8, 1971...

...Time was clearly unsympathetic to the Catholic position on divorce and once quoted a typically anonymous "diocesan official" saying that "you practically have to be a religious nut" to live by that teaching (October 2, 1972...

...In an article contentiously titled "Bishops in the Dock" (June 28, 1971), the magazine reported on a "censure" of the bishops of Chicago by the Association of Chicago Priests...

...A rather sensationalistic story (December 3, 1973) reported on a "Third Way" between marriage and celibacy followed by some priests and nuns--dating and extra-marital affairs...

...In the same article the Pope, referred to by his given name of Giovanni Battista Montini, was chided for not admitting that "he is, after all, a human being like anyone else...

...September 23, 1968...

...The magazine had revealed that it waited with some impatience for the death of the man who would not oblige it by resigning...

...Although he claimed the keys of Peter, the magazine told readers that "...it is painfully evident that he frequently fumbles for the lock" (October 20, 1969...

...When, after two years had elapsed and the expected demise had not occurred, the journal returned to the theme, reporting that the Pope "appears convinced that the days of his papacy are numbered...

...Furthermore, the claim that most of the conservative leaders were converts was demonstrably untrue...

...The American bishops, calling for an end to the Vietnam war, were ridiculed for their tardiness (November 29, 1971...

...I The Alternatwe: An Amerman Spectator October 1976 21...

...From 1968 to 1975, it is fair to say, Newsweek published scarcely a favorable word about the Pontiff, and treated him as virtually an enemy of the Church he headed...

...The bishops' disapproval of such practices was reduced simply to fear of losing "their almost total power over the personal lives and concerns of their clergy...

...However, the bishops of Colombia, giving cautious approval for the use of birth-control pills, were said to be capable of "shaking the church's doctrine world-wide" (July 30, 1973...

...An anonymous Dutchman was allowed to say that "it is generally known that Wright is not being taken very seriously" and "his appointment...was a mistake in the first place" (February 23, 1970...

...There was, however, still more...

...When Paul VI visited the Philippines the following year, Newsweek wondered if he were being used as a "local political pawn" (November 30, 1970...

...The magazine portrayed an international meeting of bishops as a contest between the bishops and the Pope, and praised the bishops for "showing courage" (November 4, 1974...

...November 4, 1974...

...Some subjects were grossly overplayed (for example, no fewer than six articles on birth control appeared between June 21 and October 4, 1968...

...American bishops, for example, were chided for not possessing a "national awareness" of their own independence, such as the Dutch bishops had (January 22, 1968...

...With what seemed like a note of triumph Newsweek referred to American Catholics as "increasingly indistinguishable from their Protestant co-religionists," having "moved from the formerly all-embracing mystique of 'Holy Mother Church,' " though, to be sure, descriptions were as subjective and prejudicial for the "new" Church as for the "old...

...As evidenced in the case of Bishop Colombo, Newsweek's practice was also to discredit the Pope's close associates, especially those who were notably outspoken in defending papal policies...

...Woodward once again made a pitch for a married clergy in order to destroy the "constricting clerical cult...

...Describing "journalistic abuse" and a "rebellious spirit," the magazine favorably quoted a priest urging his fellow clergy not to read certain newspapers...

...The doctrine of papal infallibility, official Church teaching since 1870, was reduced-by Newsweek to merely one among "special Roman concepts" (July 16, 1973...

...After the controversial encyclical's appearance, Woodward 20 The Alternative: An American Spectator October 1976 published a signed editorial in which he repeated the charge of disunity...

...What had caused this dramatic shift in the magazine's position was that it was talking not about dissident Catholics of the "Left" but about those of the "Right...

...An ex-priest characterized him as having a "heroic martyr complex," and a psychiatrist was found who was willing to diagnose the papal maladies at a distance: "He projects an image of anxiety and suffering...

...These articles ranged over a variety of subjects, including birth control, membership in the College of Cardinals, the crisis of the priesthood and the religious life, dissident theologians, changes in the ritual of the Mass, declining church attendance, divorce, the Catholic antiwar movement, abortion, and Church finances...

...The implications of this barrage were dubious even from the point of view of Newsweek's own coverage, which had consistently represented the Pope not as indecisive but as unyielding and even rigid in his positions...

...The magazine's coverage dwelt on the commercial aspects of the event, stressed the opposition that existed to it, and predicted a mssible "Counter-Holy Year" (January 6, 1975...

...When the Pope affirmed Catholic belief in a personal devil, Newsweek gave the last word to a left-wing Italian journalist (January 1, 1973...

...Even before the appearence of Humanae Vitae, Newsweek had gossiped about Bishop Carlo Colombo, one of the Pope's favorite theologians, allowing anonymous "authorities" to undermine the bishop's professional reputation (April 8, 1968...

...By mid-1975, Newsweek had ceased paying much attention to he Papacy or to the Catholic Church, and instances of blatant ~rejudice were consequently minimized...

...When a monsignor proposed that the Church allow divorce, Newsweek was highly sympathetic and ended its article with a quote from an anonymous canon lawyer, "Isn't it incredible that we have to fight with our leaders to take care of our people...

...When the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, Luigi Raimondi, was made a cardinal in Rome, Newsweek found an anonymous "church official in Washington" to make slighting remarks about him (February 19, 1973...

...Those consistently reading Time's religion columns would rarely have learned about anything positive or creative happenJames Hitchcock is professor of history at Saint Louis University and author, most recently, of The Decline and Fall of Radical Catholicism...

...Speaking of the hierarchy, he said that "The worst, all too frequently, get promoted...

...Presentations were sometimes unfairly slanted, as when a cover story on the exodus of priests and nuns from the Church (February 23, 1970) predicted that all the "best" people would soon leave...

...Suddenly in 1973 (August 6) it did an about-face and warned against "raucous" elements in the Church which constituted "an embattled sect" and which were engaged in an "all-out attack on the Church's hierarchy and institutions...

...Other "Vatican insiders" described the Pope as determined to hold onto power even though unable to make decisions (October 2, 1972...

...The leadership in turn was often represented as timid, defensive, and out of touch with modern realities...

...But, as in the case of Our Sunday Visitor, the magazine was determined to pronounce as deviant and sectarian whatever in the Church diverged from its own version of Catholicism...

...He resurrected the charge that American l~riests were "psychologically underdeveloped" (obviously because of celibacy), and pictured the bishops as dishonest and undemocratic (November 15, 1971...

...When a world-wide synod of bishops failed to consider clerical marriage, the frustrated Woodward reported that "the delegates were as confused at the end as they were at the beginning...

...Admitting that many Colombians welcomed the Pope, the magazine felt compelled to correct any misconceptions by quickly adding, "But still larger numbers are apt to remember that their distinguished visitor...brought them little hope that their lot may really be improved...

...Newsweek, by contrast, carried on a persistent propaganda campaign against the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, using sneers, innuendoes, and occasional misstatements as its weapons...

...Resignation would call for clarity, as well as energy...

...Anonymous "associates" of the Pope were said to have told the journal that "his major goal...is simply to make it through 1975...

...Perhaps the most troubling feature of Newsweek's religious stories was the frequency with which news reports were simply used as an excuse for the magazine to prescribe policy for the Church...

...If an image of Catholics with "mouths pinched dry with fasting" set the tone for the section on the pre-1960s Church, so was the Church after the Second Vatican Council said "at times [to appear] to be one vast boarding house of clergy, many of whom leave the priesthood as soon as they find a more attractive home...

...In dozens of stories pertaining to Catholic issues during the period considered, Time rarely failed to present the news in terms other than one of conflict between "progressives" and "conservatives," and the magazine's sympathy with the former group was usually evident...

...At the same time, the magazine was willing to grant that the "official" Church did have a case, and although readers would usually find their sympathies enlisted on the side of the critics they were at least given a glimpse of why Church leaders might think and act the way they did...

...After Humanae Vitae, Newsweek found a Viennese theologian who "weighed the encyclical and found it wanting" (March 10, 1969...

...Evidently embarrassed because the Africans gave the Pontiff so enthusiastic a welcome, the magazine explained that African Catholics, "still new to the faith" and "docile towards authority," did not understand the issues facing the Church...

...Shortly before Humanae Vitae's publication, Newsweek said of the Pope that "he drives the church's disparate factions into radical disunity" (July 22, 1968...

...Suddenly respect for authority, hints of ecclesiastical censure, and the demands of institutional unity took precedence over the courageous spirit of independence previously celebrated...

...Sometimes Newsweek's biases were acknowledged candidly, as in a signed article (May 10, 1971) in which Woodward expressed his unhappiness with the state of the Church...

...How far this determination could be carried was evident in the magazine's consistent treatment of Pope Paul VI...

...Afterwards a priest-psychologist cited in the article said he had been misquoted...

...In the period 1968-75 the religion departments of both magazines consistently manifested a bias toward what was generally called the "liberal" side in Catholic disputes, i.e., those people in the Church advocating continuing changes in a wide variety of beliefs and practices...

...When the Pope visited Uganda in 1969, Newsweek dwelt on the cost of the trip and characterized it as a boon to the tourist industry (August 4, 1969...

...When the Pontiff visited Colombia a month later, Newsweek dismissed his remarks on the need for social reform as "cliches...

...Given the time-hallowed practice of the two journals, such a bias was perhaps inevitable and to be accepted as such...

...Newsweek saw fit to publicize a Seattle newspaper columnist who had attacked the papal condemnation of abortion by sneering that the Pope "wears white dresses" and asserting that the "voice of their [Catholics'] celibate 70-year-old Pope sounds like a curse to the rest of us" (july 28, 1969...

...Reporting on his fifteenth-year class reunion at Notre Dame, Woodward snidely disparaged the Notre Dame he had known (although cautiously approving of the "new" Notre Dame), and, to establish the desired image of Catholic hypocrisy, claimed to have met two classmates stumbling drunkenly on their way to pray at a shrine of the Virgin Mary "after unsuccessful attempts to bed down two middle-aged barflies in South Bend" (June 26, 1972...

...When the Pope proposed an annual public reaffirmation of celibacy by priests, Newsweek called the sugestion "ominous" and said that it "sounds like a loyalty oath" (February 23, 1970...

...At present it remains ancertain whether this lull represents the end of, or a mere truce in, what has been an incredibly sustained and bitter journalistic vendetta...

...Yet included in the indictment was the newspaper with the largest circulation in American Catholicism--Our Sunday Visitor, which over the years had been sold regularly in practically every parish church in America and deserved, if any publication did, to be designated as representative of the mainstream of the American Church...

...Woodward on several occasions identified himself publicly as a dissenting Catholic...

...Words like "insensitive" and "unimaginative" peppered the article, the predictable point of which was that the bishops must change their attitudes and policies...

...A cover story on October 4, 1971, asked, "Has the Church Lost Its Soul...

...The summing-up statement at the end of the article was by a Jesuit sociologist: "I see no way of stopping the Third Way," and the conclusion that the Church must sanction clerical marriage was virtually dictated by the article's tone and selective presentation of facts...

...The magazine described a meeting of the American bishops as "protected by a phalanx of armed security guards," implying that the bishops needed protection from their own people (May 10, 1971...

...Since Newsweek had appointed itself the champion of change in the Catholic Church, it had a vested interest in showing that virtually no one of any weight or intelligence opposed such change...

...Since Newsweek's own stories had consistently represented the American bishops as unyielding and conservative, the reduction of American Catholic conservatism to a "sectarian movement" was an absurd and illogical step...

...A few months later it repeated that "this year might be his last" (January 6, 1975...

...Reporting that some Romans were "secure in the knowledge that lingering illnesses have been rare among Popes," he concluded by citing a medieval tract entitled "On the Brevi W of the Life of the Roman Pontiffs...

...This coverage was a mixed blessing, however, particularly in the aftermath of the Council-when it became apparent that the Church was passing through one of the greatest crises in its history...

...Gratuitous and contentious interpretations of events were routine in Newsweek's coverage of Catholic matters...

...It did not...

...and he characterized the bishops as insensitive and worldly, the priests as "personally underdeveloped" (a characterization taken from one priest's psychological study of his brethren...

...In brief, Newsweek's coverage of matters Catholic was rarely a serious effort to present information to readers but was instead a persistent application of pressure to force the Church to change its doctrines and practices, a legitimate activity in frankly labelled columns of opinion but not in a format which purported to inform...

...ame'.s Hitchcock Bigotry in The Press: The Example of Newsweek For the last eight years, Newsweek has taken every possible opportunity to disparage Catholic institutions and--under the guise of objective reporting--to find fault with Church policies...

...On several occasions Newsweek's eagerness to score points against the Catholic hierarchy led to questionable juggling of facts...

...When a Jesuit theologian was deprived of his Roman professorship, it quoted an anonymous colleague who said "he would stop repressing his feelings about all the sham, the fakery, and the Byzantine Mardi Gras that is the Vatican" (March 5, 1973...

...What is more, many magazines and broadcasters tried to influence Church policies through the tactical use of slanted news...

...During most of the period under consideration the religion editor of Newsweek was Kenneth L. Woodward, like Mohs a Catholic...

...Although the closeness of the vote (144-126) was reported, readers had to peruse the article very carefully to realize that the Association itself was unofficial and represented only a minority of Chicago's priests...

...His visit was put down as "bread and circuses" and a "Catholic carnival, with the pope as the main attraction (September 2, 1968...