Opinion: Letter
Writer off-base, biased
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I am writing about Dan Rose’s column, “Bishop Morlino danger to rational Catholicism” (April 3). I marvel at the fact this freshman is majoring in journalism; it appears he has not learned much from his classes thus far.
The column is a series of unsubstantiated accusations, including calling Bishop Morlino “incompetent,” “ill-informed,” “corrupt” and “murdering.” In addition, he accuses the bishop of “outright sexism and bigotry.” He asks his readers not to sink to Morlino’s “level of hatred.”
While Mr. Rose is entitled to his baseless opinions, it seems strange there is no editor who asked him to substantiate his accusations. Plus, he gets basic facts wrong. He states Bishop Morlino was transferred to
Mr. Rose and the editors need to know that this would not pass muster at a real newspaper. Shame on The Badger Herald for being so amateurish that they published this absurd piece that shows shoddy research and incomprehensible logic. It reflects poorly on the newspaper and the university.
Susan Fani
Director of Communications
Catholic League
catalyst@catholicleague.org
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Arguing an opinion is “baseless” is no argument
Rose’s column sucked. This isn’t much better.
“Rose also writes Ruth Kolpack was terminated because she wanted greater rights for women in the church. The reality is, per the bishop’s website: ‘Ms. Kolpack was let go because the Bishop is not confident she can or will present the complete and authentic teaching of the Church, the presentation of which he is responsible for in every parish in the diocese.’” —> this sounds like a round-about way to say the same thing.
Ms. Fani and her supporters need to know that this poorly written letter would not pass muster at a real newspaper. She’s very fortunate that The Badger Herald is “so amateurish” that they published this absurd piece that shows shoddy research and incomprehensible logic. It reflects poorly on the Catholic League and thinking Catholics everywhere.
Incomprehensible logic? The same could be said about christianity. I cannot comprehend how over a billion people think that Jesus was the son of god. Its their opinion and they are entitled to it.
How is Catholicism not incomprehensible logic?
@9:26, You forget though, Ms. Fani is not a journalist nor is she trying to be one. There’s more research shown in this LETTER than in Rose’s entire ARTICLE. Rose’s article was absurd and had outright lies in it. Rose admitted himself in the online comments that his piece bordered on libel. He’s lucky all he’s getting is some ameteur letter and not facing legal ramifications.
Simply because someone does not agree with your perspective does not mean that their opinion is baseless. Perhaps some of the nitpicky details were missed, but the overarching message remains intact. We do need more people challenging persons in authority positions. And getting your facts from the Bishop’s own website is a surefire way to miss the point of the column completely. I am not ashamed of the paper or the university because of this column. I am ashamed of people who want to stifle freedom of speech, in lieu of thoughtless fodder which makes us stupid.
i’m pretty sure the point of an opinion piece is to be biased…..but hey, that’s just my opinion.
I’m watching the “Fantastic Easter Special” episode of South Park on Comedy Central, and am reminded of how ridiculous the Catholic League is.
I think a lot of people seem to think that writing an opinion piece means you can say whatever you want and have no repercussions. That is wishful thinking. When facts are misrepresented or even false, it reflects poorly on you and the people who published the article, and those who were targeted will come back at you. Rose apparently did little or no research and went after a high ranking member of the local church, and now he looks like a clueless freshman as his piece is ripped to shreds. Opinion is one thing, but to make certain claims, there needs to be some evidence or reasoning as to why it is true.
Op ed pieces require some bias. It is asinine to assume otherwise. Rose is not in danger of any legal ramifications: the supreme court has repeatedly ruled that public officials are open to any kind of criticism/ opinions or otherwise (whether they are founded or unfounded).
I love how she cited that Ms. Kolpack was let go because of ‘the teaching of the Church.’ The teaching of the church is SEXISM. So, the Herald columnist’s statement was pretty much accurate, regardless of how Fani twists the wording.
It makes me sad to see a woman writing this column. The amount of religious Americans is steadily decreasing, while the Catholic Church continues to preach a doctrine that is both out-of-date and offensive. I mean, no birth control (oh wait…according to the Pope condoms don’t protect against HIV…)? No gay marriage? No equal rights for women?
And this response was just completely rude. Maybe this is because the claims made by Rose successfully pointed out the horrific flaws in the Catholic Church—flaws that cannot be justified regardless of how Ms. Fani decides to twist the words.
And so what if he got a couple facts wrong. Maybe they’re wrong because he got his information from a church….They do seem to have a tendency to preach untruths…