Media Acknowledge Daniel Pearl's ‘Unborn Child’

WORLD NET DAILY, March 1 — When Heath and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced an expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program to unborn children, there was a hue and cry from many journalists about chipping away at a “woman's right to choose.”

But the media seems to have “turned radically pro-life” since the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, commentator Dean Karayanis wrote on the Internet site.

“News writers routinely drum up sympathy” for the “unborn child” of Daniel and Mariane Pearl, wrote Karayanis, content producer for RushLimbaugh.com. A Nexis search for Pearl's name and “unborn child” returned hundreds of hits, including some from the most liberal sources, he said.

“Though it surely wasn't the media's intention, their coverage had to make some people wonder, ‘Wait a minute. That tiny ultrasound blur is alive ?” Karayanis wrote. “Maybe the bottom line is that, until the media tells me so, I'm not sophisticated enough to understand which fetuses I'm supposed to pity for never knowing their fathers and which ones I'm supposed to pity for never knowing life at all.”

St. Patrick's Day Parade Honors Sept. 11 Heroes

THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 8 — Writing in anticipation of the biggest day for the Irish in the Big Apple, the New York daily said that this year's minute of silence during the St. Patrick's Day Parade would inject a somber mood into the annual festival of bagpipes and Celtic pride.

Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York and this year's grand marshal, was to lead millions of spectators and parade participants in turning south at 12:30 p.m. March 16, toward the site of the former World Trade Center, to take a minute to remember the 2,800 people who died there Sept. 11.

Many of the victims, including financial-service traders who worked on the upper-most floors of the twin towers and firefighters and police officers, were Irish-Americans. The parade was dedicated to those uniformed heroes.

But a group that has been a thorn in the side of parade organizers for years, the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, wanted everyone to know that there were “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender” heroes, too, the Times said. The group, which has been prohibited from marching in the parade under their own banner because their viewpoint contradicts Catholic teaching, planned to hold its usual sideline protest.

Simon Gives Heavily to Catholic Causes

ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 3 — After he won the Republican primary for governor in California, Bill Simon's contributions to Catholic causes were scrutinized by the wire service, which found that the candidate generously supports Catholic causes.

Through his Cynthia L. and William E. Simon, Jr., Foundation, Simon donated $1.5 million from 1998 to 2000. “Simon's charitable giving before he became a candidate, detailed on federal tax forms for private foundations, reveals a wealthy, religious activist eager to fund and promote a generally conservative brand of Christianity,” writes AP's Jim Wasserman. “He and his wife, Cynthia, also show interest in scholarships and physical fitness for inner-city students, hospitals, the homeless, Catholic broadcasting and Christian content in movies and films.”

Frances Kissling, director of the dissident group Catholics for a Free Choice, is worried that Simon's charitable giving record reveals a man who is a threat to abortion rights and “family planning.”

The article also points out that Simon wrote an opinion article ranking Pope John Paul II as the 20th century's greatest leader alongside Winston Churchill. It also noted that he is a member of the Knights of Malta, whose roots are in the “Church's medieval crusades.”

We look forward to a similar article about the nature of the causes to which Gray Davis donates, though the piece did point out that the Democratic governor's “Catholic religious affiliation is largely unknown publicly.”