Ruth Hooke, a longtime Amherst Town Meeting member, wants the community to roll out the welcome mat for a pair of exonerated detainees from the Guantanamo Bay military prison.
On 10/09/09, the Bulletin ran a very offensive cartoon linking Roman Polanski to Pope Benedict and by logical extension, the entire Catholic Church. It was a cheap shot rehashing all the pedophile images from 2002-05 and served no purpose. There wasn't even a local connection. Ah, but when somebody submitted a letter to the editor, it wasn't published. Several weeks later, it still wasn't published, but the Bulletin saw fit to give its blessings to the Guantanamo Bay detainees Mrs. Hooke wants to invite. How odd that the paper found a welcome spot for a blatantly anti-Catholic cartoon, but it made no efforts to allow for any opposition to the running of this cartoon. Some "welcome mat." Here's the letter I thought the Bulletin's editorial staff had the decency and courage to run in the first place:
It's shameful enough for anti-Catholicism to remain as the last respectable form of bigotry in the U.S. (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.) Notwithstanding so many contributions made by millions of Catholics in our history and daily lives, the Catholic Church always seems to be fair game. Where does much of this very selective religious bigotry derive its strength? You're holding a great source of it in your hands.
When any media outlet, be it a major conglomerate, or a local publication such as the Bulletin serving no less such a self-proclaiming progressive and enlightened area, publishes a cartoon as the one the Bulletin ran last week which deliberately linked the Catholic Church with Roman Polanski, it is directly contributing to the spread of anti-Catholic bigotry. Only a bigot would find that cartoon amusing.
Mount Holyoke College's Peter Viereck described anti-Catholicism as the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals. (This ought to call into question both the IQ levels and consciences of any self-proclaimed intellectuals or "progressive-minded thinkers" unable to find anything objectionable with the cartoon or any other display of religious bigotry.) Let's hope to God the Bulletin hasn't discerned a market for providing any editorial cover or justification on behalf of publishing that disgusting illustration. That wouldn't really be an of discernment: that'd be an invention. There were other cartoons indexed by Cagle the paper should've considered running. ( http://www.cagle.com/ )
The paper owes its readers, and not just Catholics, an apology for running that particularly offensive cartoon. A deliberate slam and bigoted attack on one faith is an attack on all faiths. Or have the rules changed, strictly for Catholics, who'll only learn of these changes when they turn to the Op-Ed pages?
Steven Barrett Monday, Nov 02, 2009 at 08:44 PM
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On 10/09/09, the Bulletin ran a very offensive cartoon linking Roman Polanski to Pope Benedict and by logical extension, the entire Catholic Church. It was a cheap shot rehashing all the pedophile images from 2002-05 and served no purpose. There wasn't even a local connection. Ah, but when somebody submitted a letter to the editor, it wasn't published. Several weeks later, it still wasn't published, but the Bulletin saw fit to give its blessings to the Guantanamo Bay detainees Mrs. Hooke wants to invite. How odd that the paper found a welcome spot for a blatantly anti-Catholic cartoon, but it made no efforts to allow for any opposition to the running of this cartoon. Some "welcome mat." Here's the letter I thought the Bulletin's editorial staff had the decency and courage to run in the first place:
It's shameful enough for anti-Catholicism to remain as the last respectable form of bigotry in the U.S. (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.) Notwithstanding so many contributions made by millions of Catholics in our history and daily lives, the Catholic Church always seems to be fair game. Where does much of this very selective religious bigotry derive its strength? You're holding a great source of it in your hands.
When any media outlet, be it a major conglomerate, or a local publication such as the Bulletin serving no less such a self-proclaiming progressive and enlightened area, publishes a cartoon as the one the Bulletin ran last week which deliberately linked the Catholic Church with Roman Polanski, it is directly contributing to the spread of anti-Catholic bigotry. Only a bigot would find that cartoon amusing.
Mount Holyoke College's Peter Viereck described anti-Catholicism as the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals. (This ought to call into question both the IQ levels and consciences of any self-proclaimed intellectuals or "progressive-minded thinkers" unable to find anything objectionable with the cartoon or any other display of religious bigotry.) Let's hope to God the Bulletin hasn't discerned a market for providing any editorial cover or justification on behalf of publishing that disgusting illustration. That wouldn't really be an of discernment: that'd be an invention. There were other cartoons indexed by Cagle the paper should've considered running. ( http://www.cagle.com/ )
The paper owes its readers, and not just Catholics, an apology for running that particularly offensive cartoon. A deliberate slam and bigoted attack on one faith is an attack on all faiths. Or have the rules changed, strictly for Catholics, who'll only learn of these changes when they turn to the Op-Ed pages?
Steven Barrett Monday, Nov 02, 2009 at 08:44 PM