Monday, March 18, AD 2024 9:27pm

Bias in the American Catholic media?

 

Thomas Joseph O’Brien.

The name may have slipped from memory, as the media has moved on to cover other “hot,” Church-related scandals as well as to cover the ecclesiastical politics associated with the upcoming Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2015.

O’Brien is the Bishop Emeritus of Phoenix, resigning in 2003, 4 days after he struck and killed a 43-year-old man in a hit-and-run car accident. In 2004, O’Brien was found guilty of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and was sentenced to 4 years’ probation, 1k hours of community service, and required to surrender his driver’s license for 5 years.

obrien

Thomas Joseph O’Brien is the first American Catholic bishop convicted of a felony.

This was a delicious scandal for some in the American Catholic media. For example, the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) jumped right on the story, here and here, providing the coverage it deserved. After all, committing vehicular manslaughter is no trivial matter.

Compare that scandal to a more recent one involving Maryland’s second-highest ranking Episcopal bishop who was charged in January 2015 with drunken driving and vehicular manslaughter after fatally striking a cyclist late in December 2015. Prosecutors charged the bishop with leaving the scene of an accident, criminal negligent manslaughter, failure to remain at the scene of an accident resulting in serious injury and death, using a text messaging device that resulted in an accident, and 3 drunken driving charges. If convicted of all charges, the bishop could face 20+ years in prison. The bishop’s bail was set at $2.5M. A trial is scheduled for February 6.

Sadly, this bishop also appears to have had problems with alcohol, charged by police in 2010 while yet a priest with drunken driving. Police also found wine, liquor, and marijuana in the car. In exchange for pleading guilty to the drunken driving offense, the drug charges were dropped and the priest received probation.

The most recent charges came less than 1 week after the national Episcopal Church announced it was opening an investigation into the bishop. Why? The 2010 charges weren’t shared with the clergy and lay church members who were charged with selecting the bishop from among four finalists. Then, too, another complaint was filed last week calling for national Episcopal Church leaders to open an investigation to determine whether the bishop violated church law in the hit-and-run accident.

Oh, by the way, it just so happens this bishop is female. She is Heather Cook, the suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

cook

A search of the NCR archives from 2008-2014 using the key terms “bishop” “Thomas O’Brien” and “Phoenix” revealed 1161 articles in which the bishop was identified. A search using the key terms during the same period “Heather Cook” revealed 0 (nada, zippo) articles. Nothing about her being ordained a female priest or bishop and deafening silence about her accident.

It isn’t that the NCR doesn’t cover the topic of female bishops. Another search of the NCR archives since 2008 using the keyword “female bishop” revealed 23 articles. Another search using the keyword “suffragan bishop” revealed 4 articles discussing female bishops. True, the NCR didn’t cover Bishop Cook’s ordination.

That said, these data do raise a question: Is focusing exclusively upon the errors of male bishops and overlooking those of female bishops what it means for the NCR “in all our management and publishing decisions, to evaluate carefully the needs of the faith community we serve and to respond effectively to those needs?”

 

 

 

 

To read The Motley Monk’s daily blog, Omnibus, click on the following link:
http://richard-jacobs-blog.com/omnibus.html

0 0 votes
Article Rating
8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, January 12, AD 2015 3:25pm

I do not expect the National Catholic Reporter to cover stories about superintendents of small protestant bodies. (O’Brien had no interest in liturgical renewal and was a wretched administrator per accounts published at the time; A good Bishop for the NCR and Commonweal, thought not as good as Peggy Steinfels’ fave, Rembert Weakland).

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, January 12, AD 2015 7:32pm

Take if for the (albeit backhanded) compliment it is. Bishops matter. “Bishops,” male or female, don’t.

Mary De Voe
Tuesday, January 13, AD 2015 7:32am

“media bias” is a compliment. The headline was something like: Bishop Hit and Run. The media is too shallow to even care what is read into their work.

A Cloney
A Cloney
Tuesday, January 13, AD 2015 8:28am

She most likely supports “marriage equality” & “reproductive rights”. Besides, NCR has been pushing for Catholics to adopt wobbly Episcopalian policies for a long time & don’t want bad “publicity “.

Fr P.
Fr P.
Tuesday, January 13, AD 2015 9:26am

The flaw is including NCReporter in “Catholic media.”

TomD
TomD
Tuesday, January 13, AD 2015 11:31am

It should be remembered that in both of these incidents the bishops not only did not stop to render medical aid but also did not give absolution to their dying victim (yes, Episcopal priests and bishops can give absolution under their rubrics). This is a betrayal of their ministry that only magnifies the betrayal of their humanity. Shame on them!

c matt
c matt
Tuesday, January 13, AD 2015 2:42pm

I don’t know what your searches for female or suffragan bishops turned up, but because this involved a fake bishop rather than a Catholic one, I can’t necessarily fault a “Catholic” periodical for not covering it.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Tuesday, January 13, AD 2015 4:08pm

Agreed. The Heather Cook story is about (a) a local tragedy, (b) a train-wreck of a middle-aged woman and (c) what that says about her diocese, her denomination, and the mainline protestant clergy generally. Not really the National Catholic Reporter‘s beat.

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top