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The newsjerk on the Larry King show who said that the Pope joined the Hitler Youth because of "youthful excess" and "because everyone else was doing it". That so infuriated me that I can't stop thinking about it. No documentation on who he was, unfortunately. And Larry King said nothing.

Transcript! - that just popped into my head. If I have the energy later, I'll look up the transcript.

Found the transcript of the comments a newsjerk (Paul Wilkes) made to Larry King on April 19, 2005.

Larry King directs a question to Paul Wilkes, "BeliefNet.com's special correspondent and expert on papal succession".

KING: Paul Wilkes, can you clear up any of this story of him being a member of the Hitler Youth?

WILKES: Well, I think, this was perhaps a youthful excess. I don't think we should put too much stock in that. He was just a kid. It probably was, like, the rest of the guys are doing it and so am I.

Asinine comments! - "youthful excess", "the rest of the guys are doing it and so am I". Infuriates me.

I therefore nominate Paul Wilkes for the Newsjerk of the Year Award. He lied and fabricated his information. It's a deliberate smear of the Pope. If he had done his homework, he would have known that as a youth, Ratzinger didn't have a choice in the matter because membership in the Hitler Youth was compulsory. Ratzinger later was a deserter from the German army and became a U.S. prisoner of war for 6 weeks. See article.

As a religious correspondent, Wilkes should have his facts straight before he spouts off. And Larry King deserves a special award for saying nothing after Wilkes' stupid/lying comments.