The Bishops & Iraq: where was the coverage?

Commonweal, Nov 22, 2002 by Paul Moses

Debra Mason, executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association, said in an e-mail interview that there is a "fatigue with all things Roman Catholic" because of the many stories on clergy sex abuse. Some religion reporters continue to cover the story nearly full-time, she said. Other factors are reduced emphasis given to reporting on religious leaders' official statements and greater stress on providing a wider variety of religious viewpoints, leading to less space for the Catholic position, she said.

The scandal could possibly have made individual bishops reluctant to speak out. One of the key factors in determining newsworthiness is proximity to readers. If a bishop addressed the issue, his local newspaper might be more likely to cover the story.

Zokovitch said that some bishops--he mentioned Walter Sullivan in Richmond, Virginia, Thomas Gumbleton in Detroit, and Joseph Fiorenza in Galveston, Texas--have been raising the issue.

In New York, the nation's media capital, there has been a void--again, much in contrast to 1991. Back then, Cardinal John O'Connor spoke on the horrors of war, recalling his own experience in a military career that led to the rank of rear admiral. In one homily, he remembered watching a tank sink into a swamp, drowning five men trapped inside. "I will remember that swamp, those bodies till I die," he said, urging Catholics to ponder the morality of war against Iraq.

His successor, Cardinal Edward Egan, has not addressed the topic except for several brief references at Mass. He did, however, host a fundraising dinner at which Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke in support of war with Iraq. (In response in his public remarks, Egan gently told Powell, "You know how precious peace is," adding, "Mr. Secretary, you know what I'm talking about.")

The Gregory letter did get widespread coverage in the Catholic press. But, Zokovitch noted, it was still treated in many papers as "a secondary article." I found the same thing: Many editors ran the Catholic News Service account in the back of the book.

The question of war with Iraq was one of the hottest stories in September. When the Catholic bishops took a stance on it, they provided the Catholic press with a strong angle to write about one of the major issues of the day. It's odd that quite a few papers downplayed the story.

"Even with the ones who showcased it, there hasn't been a lot of follow-up," Zokovitch said, adding that most of the calls his organization gets on the topic have been coming from the secular press, not Catholic papers.

Paul Moses teaches journalism at Brooklyn College/CUNY.