No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: ProPublica Attacks Church For Being Transparent

FEBRUARY 20, 2020 BY  THEMEDIAREPORT.COM  24 COMMENTS

Banging their heads against the wall: Journalistic malpractice at ProPublica

Fact: The Catholic Church is the only institution on the planet where if you are an employee merely accused of wrongdoing from decades ago, your name may end up on a diocesan web site somewhere for the entire world to see as if you were a convicted child molester.

Think about that.

Despite the evidence of widespread abuse and cover-ups in public schools (this, this, this, this, this), the Boy Scouts, Hollywood, and elsewhere, only the Catholic Church has made the effort to be "transparent" by posting the names of all merely accused employees on their web sites even though many of those listed may be entirely innocent.

 

Following the herd:
Lexi Churchill from ProPublica

But leave it to the "nonprofit newsroom" of  ProPublica to write a  long and breathless "investigation" attacking the Catholic Church because the names of  some accused priests are allegedly "missing" from some diocesan lists.

ProPublica's anger is just plain weird. For example, the writers, including Lexi Churchill, were downright incensed that the name of the long-retired Rev. Richard Donahue (ordained in 1968), whose accusations of abuse from many decades ago were thoroughly investigated by the Archdiocese of Bostonand found to be completely bogus, didn't have his name listed on the archdiocesan web site as a dangerous pedophile quickly enough in order to defame him.

In truth, no other institution in the world has done more to rectify for the sins of its past than the Catholic Church. Over $3 billion in settlements in the US alone; over $100 million in therapy payments for victims; countless mea culpas. It never ends.

Yet the haters and jihadists at ProPublica continue to pile on. They think that it's highbrow journalism to flyspeck diocesan web sites to find "missing names" of accused priests from long ago (who may or may not be guilty of anything) to ensure that a mere accusation is taken as proofof misconduct.

Here are some ideas, ProPublica: How about questioning the fairness and morality of these "lists of accused priests" in the first place? Are these lists really about "supporting victims" and "transparency"? Or are they actually about giving fraudsters, mental cases, and contingency lawyers a free database to help them solicit lawsuits against the Catholic Church? Would Ms. Churchill approve of having a similar list of former "accused employees" of ProPublica on its ownweb site for eternity based upon a mere accusation?

That ProPublica spent so much time and effort into such an investigation based on such a weak premise just demonstrates how ingrained is the mindlessness among journalists when it comes to this issue.

It's high time for journalists to put their thinking caps back on and think about the fairness or unfairness of the stories which they write.

http://www.themediareport.com/2020/02/20/pro-publica/