Clueless News Network

I have the TV tuned to  CNN to remind myself why I no longer watch CNN.

• I'm watching CNN correspondent Alessio Vinci (sp?) interviewing Cardinal Walter Kaspar and doing his best to bait  Kaspar -- a liberal who a few days ago declared the conclave cannot elect a "clone" of John Paul II -- into criticizing his fellow German, Pope Benedict XVI. The Cardinal, to his credit, smilingly refuses to take the bait.

• Prior to that, the insufferable Bill Schneider was yammering about the result of another meaningless poll about the attitudes American Catholics. Naturally, the numbers show majorities or pluralities of American Catholics wanting the Church water down doctrine on life and sexuality issues.

• Sen. Rick Santorum is popular on the news nets right now (Get me Santorum! He believes all that Catholic stuff, doesn't he?"). Judy Woodruff immediately started in about CNN's poll and asked Sen. Santorum if American Catholics wishes as expressed in this poll would be "rewarded" by the new Pope. Although I'm sure he wanted to simultaneously burst out laughing and smack Woodruff upside the head, Santorum calmly explained that America Catholics are only 6% of Catholics worldwide, etc.

Thank God, Woodruff just broke for commercial, and I'll be able to watch something semi-intelligent for two minutes until Bob Novak (a Catholic convert) comes on and triples CNN's on-air IQ.

UPDATE: It's amusing to watch some of the oh-so-serious anchors like Woodruff try to sound intelligent on Catholicism and the Papacy. Their ignorance is so painfully obvious, as is their discomfort in talking about these issues because they are just as aware of how painfully obvious their ignorance is. Did that make sense?

It's also entertaining to watch smashmouth Paul Begala (also, apparently, a Catholic) trying to project gravitas and respectfulness. But he had to be sure to quickly point out that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith used to be the scary Inquisition (although I doubt Begala could mount an informed disquisition on the Inquisition).

UPDATE: Wolf Blitzer just described the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as being in charge of enforcing "Church guidelines." Guidelines?

Comments

[Jimbo (from The Pope Blog)]

Amen! They are very ignorant indeed!

[Tom]

Yes guidelines...you know, like suggestions.

I Wolf is Channeling the Anglican Church there.

[Karen Davis]

Viva la Papa. We have a Holy Man for our times. There is a wave of conservatism across the world. People need to embrace it. This is a reaction to, as Pope Benedict might say, a reaction to the anarchy of the sixties. Thank God, the cardinals voted for this man.

[john]

Everytime I see polls from the mainstream media citing American Catholics beliefs are out of line with Church "guidelines", I just wonder how many are actually practicing Catholics. By the way, are these the same polls that show a majority of Americans are in favor of gay marriage? Was that the same majority that went to the voting booths in November and voted to approve all those ballot iniatives regarding the defense of marriage?

[Celia]

I agree with you about the Pope and the importance of being true to the teachings of Christ. However, I would encourage you to not refer to dissenters with unkind language, because that doesn't sound very Christlike and it does nothing to enhance the wonderful points you make otherwise.

Thank you for this wonderful blog.