How the New York Times Smeared Pope Francis Today

Pajamas Media ^ | 03/18/2013 | Andrew Klavan

[SeekAndFind]

When Benedict XVI was pope, the New York Times ran a scurrilous, distortion-infested campaign intended to link the former Joseph Ratzinger with the awful abuse scandals that have so harmed the Catholic Church. These pieces were manifestly dishonest and substance-free when you read them through. But the Times editors know most people don’t read the articles — they read the headlines and the first paragraph.

So this morning, the pseudo-journalists at the Times began their campaign of lies against the new pope, Francis, under the damning (and damnable) headline: “Starting a Papacy, Amid Echoes of a ‘Dirty War’”:

One Argentine priest is on trial in Tucumán Province on charges of working closely with torturers in a secret jail during the so-called Dirty War, urging prisoners to hand over information. Another priest was accused of taking a newborn from his mother….

Another clergy member offered biblical justification for the military’s death flights, according to an account by one of the pilots anguished about dumping drugged prisoners out of aircraft and into the sea.

As he starts his papacy, Francis, until this month Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, faces his own entanglement with the Dirty War, which unfolded from 1976 to 1983. As the leader of Argentina’s Jesuits for part of that time, he has repeatedly had to dispute claims that he allowed the kidnapping of two priests in his order in 1976, accusations the Vatican is calling a defamation campaign.

This is just despicable, isn’t it? Lead with examples of some priests who were wicked then segue into a paragraph about the pope to make it sound like he was one of them. Really — for shame.

Reading more deeply into the story — which I did so you don’t have to — we learn that the pope’s “entanglement,” involved hiding fugitives from the government bad guys, pleading for the release of two priests, and helping one guy who looked like him escape by lending him his papers and a priest get-up. Which last is actually pretty cool. Go, Pope.

To get behind the motivation of the Times propagandists one has to turn to today’s excellent column by the Wall Street Journal’s South America columnist, Mary Anastasia O’Grady, or as I always call her, the lady with the name like a nun. Here’s Sister O’Grady explaining it all to you in her column entitled “Behind the Campaign to Smear the Pope”:

One might have expected a swell of pride from Argentine officialdom when the news broke that the nation has produced a man so highly esteemed around the world. Instead the Kirchner government’s pit bulls in journalism—men such as Horacio Verbitsky, a former member of the guerrilla group known as the Montoneros and now an editor at the pro-government newspaper Pagina 12—immediately began a campaign to smear the new pontiff’s character and reputation at home and in the international news media.

The calumny is not new. Former members of terrorist groups like Mr. Verbitsky, and their modern-day fellow travelers in the Argentine government, have used the same tactics for years to try to destroy their enemies—anyone who doesn’t endorse their brand of [leftist] authoritarianism.

Miss O’Grady goes on to quote Graciela Fernandez Meijide, who served on the national commission that investigated the Dirty War atrocities: ”Of all the testimony I received, never did I receive any testimony that Bergoglio was connected to the dictatorship.” And later: ”I have the impression that what bothers the current president is that Bergoglio would not get in line, that he denounces the continuation of extreme poverty.”

In other words, the New York Times has signed on to a smear campaign engineered by a left-wing wannabe dictatorship. I know: backward reels the mind in shock!

Listen, no one can blame the Times editors for holding a pre-emptive grudge against the God who will one day consign them to Malebolge, the eighth circle of hell where the liars go. It’s an unpleasant place and involves a lot of demons with big claws and so forth. But they might consider that a path yet lies open to their salvation. It’s called journalism. They might want to try it before it’s too late.

[US Navy Vet]

BOY THAT didn’t take long.

[circlecity]

Don’t worry. If the Pope isn’t being smeared by the NYT then he isn’t doing his job.

[Kartographer]

"New York Times Smeared Pope Francis Today"

The Pope needs to learn to be more careful and make sure he doesn't rub up against the Times. I mean just like any flithy rag you are bound to get smeared if you rub up against it. ;-)

[SeekAndFind]

I use the New York Times as my “Doing Right vs Doing Wrong” index.

If you are smeared by the Times, you are doing what’s right.

If you are praised by the Times, you are doing what’s wrong.

[SaxxonWoods]

Liberals shocked as Cardinals again elect a Catholic as Pope.

[faithhopecharity]

the NYTimes will hopefully be put out of its misery (by the free marketplace) but most likely Obama will award it some tax payer funding to keep it going. After all, it is useful for the govt to have its propaganda ministries

[Fido969]

Hey, here’s some stats for you. The Sunday New York Time average subscriptions are about 1.2 million print and about 800,000 digital, for a total of about 2 million.

Meanwhile the cable TV special “The Bible” drew about 10 million.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: the NYTimes will hopefully be put out of its misery (by the free marketplace)

That would have happened last year. However, the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim ( who got wealthy with his cronies in Mexico bailed them out by owning a huge chunk of the paper ).

You’d expect the Times to smear the Pope but suddenly turn dumb about any under the table deals Mr. Slim makes.

[SnakeDoctor]

A man can be judged by the enemies he makes.

I rather like the new Pope ... and I’m not even Catholic.

SnakeDoc

[Mouton]

I think the Pope should authorize a crusade against the Times. I’d love to see a bunch of those editorial bums burned at the stake.

[LibLieSlayer]

The ny slime’s real editor is satan... wear their attacks as if they were a badge of honor.

LLS

[Steve Van Doorn]

If the truth sheet (NYT) doesn’t like him he must be good. That is all the endorsement I need

[GreyFriar]

Ah, the main accuser of the new Pope of being in league with the government and against the communists guerrillas is: Horacio Verbitsky, a former member of the guerrilla group known as the Montoneros

[Sooth2222]

"Hey, here’s some stats for you. The Sunday New York Time average subscriptions are about 1.2 million print and about 800,000 digital, for a total of about 2 million."

"Meanwhile the cable TV special “The Bible” drew about 10 million."

New York CITY has a population of 8,244,910. So not everybody there reads it. As of April 2010, the NY Post's daily circulation was 525,004, just 10,000 behind the NY Daily News. So the two NY tabloids have a combined print circulation greater than the NY Times.

If the NY Times thinks it's necessary to smear the new pope, I'm beginning to like him! (And I'm a survivor of a Jesuit education.)

[Hoodat]

As another FReeper said, ‘If you’re not getting flak, then you’re not over the target’.

[AnAmericanMother]

As they say, if you're drawing flak, you're over the target.

Hell's Bible (as Fr. Z dubbed them) is gunning for the Holy Father and the moral authority he represents.

Well done, Holy Father. Another Rosary for Pope Francis' intentions and for protection against evil by the legions of angels and St. Michael.

[AnAmericanMother]

What you said. :-)

[muawiyah]

Didn't I just point out the really serious grain of salt you have to take with any sort of news from Argentina about the new Pope ~ to wit: they have real commies and real nazis in Argentina ~

It has been a bit more peaceful since the 'dirty war' which means they were probably targeting the right folks ~ doesn't make it right the way they dealt with those people but this is more than a koinkydink!

[muawiyah]

Everybody gave that up some time back.