Christopher Ruddy
Wednesday, April 3, 2002

The recent spate of revelations and allegations of priestly abuse of children may be a good thing. Finally, church officials will have to confront the problem and be diligent in rooting out this evil.

A far better thing would have been for church officials to have dealt with these problems in real time – and have removed any priest who engaged in such heinous activity and immediately alerted authorities at the time of the incident.

Instead, church officials engaged in many cover-ups. These officials claimed that the church's image might be hurt if a scandal involving a particular case became public.

Such short-sighted thinking has now led to disaster for the Catholic Church.

But such thinking was not limited to church officials. During the '90s many in the liberal establishment media, prosecutors and others looked the other way when it came to allegations involving the Clintons.

Serious matters – from the sale of the country's nuclear secrets to China, to the cover-up of Vince Foster's death, to the questionable circumstances of TWA 800's crash – were all deep-sixed by the big media, independent counsels and law enforcement agencies.

If the public knew the full truth, it would be bad for the country, so the thinking went.

This is what I call "convenient thinking" for liberal media types.

Such convenient thinking doesn't apply, however, when it comes to the conservative Catholic Church or to Republican presidents like Richard Nixon, who seems to be continually skewered by the press every six months since Watergate.

Had the liberal media folks (the ones who hate outlets like NewsMax and think people like Alan Colmes are "mainstream") been balanced in their coverage of the Clintons, we may well have avoided Sept. 11. We're still waiting for an accounting of Clinton's role in the greatest disaster to happen on American soil since the Civil War.

I won't hold my breath.

Reno's Parkinson's

Michael J. Fox has a new book out about his battle with Parkinson's disease. It should be required reading for Floridians considering electing Janet Reno as Florida's governor.

Reno is suffering from Parkinson's. Still, she says she's able and fit to be governor of one of the largest states in the Union.

But Fox talks about the difficulties of the disease, which have led to massive bouts of depression, drinking binges and need for psychiatric care.

He is also on powerful medications, including Sinemet. Fox says even a "tiny bit too much" of the drug can have deleterious effects.

Reno takes Sinemet. And she has collapsed in public more than once.

It may be admirable that she wants to enter into public service despite medical handicaps. But the interests of the public demand that officials be in good enough physical and mental health to do their jobs.

Moses Wins Ratings

On Easter Sunday, ABC broadcast the classic film "The 10 Commandments" for the 22nd time since its release to TV in 1973.

The 1950s film starring Charlton Heston swept the ratings Sunday, with more than 12.5 million viewers tuning in. Media stats show that the audience is a younger demographic.

Message to Spielberg: Even the young MTVers want inspirational films that teach age-old values.

Drudge

I hear that Internet reporter Matt Drudge is gearing up for a daily syndicated radio program. And no, he won't be up against Rush or newcomer Bill O'Reilly. Drudge has a wildly successful Sunday evening radio program that has been tops in the ratings for almost every major market it airs in. As Drudge might say, "Developing ..."

Suicide Bombing

The U.S. government and the media are not condemning strongly enough the use of suicide bombers by Palestinian groups.

All people have a right to express themselves and to seek self-determination.

But the use of suicide bombers, including women and children, and the killing of innocent civilians, is absolutely reprehensible.

American learned about suicide bombers on 9-11.

Still, the media and U.S. government are taking a "balanced approach" toward the current Israeli-Palestinian crisis. This is wrong.

We should absolutely condemn the Palestinians for using these methods and not give in to any of their demands if they continue to do so.

We're Going Nuts

Sometimes I wonder what the heck is going on in this country.

Yesterday, I was on a transcontinental American Airlines flight to Los Angeles. The flight attendant offered the passengers drinks.

As she did so, she said, "We usually offer nuts with the drinks, but I am sorry. There is a passenger in the back of the plane who has an allergy to nuts."

I responded, "What does that have to do with me and the rest of us?"

"Oh, she has a severe allergy. She will go into shock from even the smell of peanuts," the attendant said.

"You mean to tell me a passenger informed you and the pilot not to serve peanuts to the other passengers because she has an allergy to peanuts, and you complied with that?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes, we're sorry."

I looked at the person seated next to me and said, "I can't believe this."

About 10 minutes later, the attendant came by with the nuts. She said to me, "It's OK to have the nuts. It's only if the peanuts are heated that the passenger has a reaction because she can smell them. So, we're sorry they are not warmed," she said as she gave me the nuts.

Now, that was considerate.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Catholic Scandal
Clinton Scandals
Media Bias
Middle East
War on Terrorism

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