The New York Times is adamant about protecting the rights of Muslims while routinely bashing Catholics, says Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Donohue was incensed by
a Times editorial that criticized Pamela Geller, who spearheaded the controversial "Draw the Prophet" contest in Texas — an event at which two Islamic State (ISIS) sympathizers were shot dead after opening fire.
The newspaper said the contest "was not really about free speech. It was an exercise in bigotry and hatred posing as a blow for freedom."
Geller, The Times said, "has a long history of declarations and actions motivated purely by hatred for Muslims" and "revels in assailing Islam in terms reminiscent of virulent racism or anti-Semitism."
"The New York Times went ballistic . . . They went bonkers protecting Muslims," said Donohue on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV on Friday.
But, he continued, "they've defended every vile depiction against my religion."
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One example, he said, was the display in the Brooklyn Art Museum of a 1996 collage by Chris Ofili called "The Holy Virgin Mary," which the artist smeared with elephant feces.
Donohue also cited a photograph by Andres Serrano, showing a crucifix submerged in a beaker of the artist's urine.
He said The Times also defended the right of Nazis to march through Skokie, Ilinois, a heavily Jewish community, in 1978.
"The New York Times is very, very sensitive when it comes to bigotry against Muslims, not so much against Jews and certainly not against Catholics," Donohue said.
He said of Geller, who has now been threatened by ISIS, "I don't agree with [her], but [The Times] treated her unfairly. They went the other way and over the top with a hammer."
It's the second time this week that Donohue has been critical of The Times.
On Thursday,
Donohue wrote a piece for Newsmax in which he called out The Times' treatment of its women employees. The column was in response to an opinion piece by Times writer
Frank Bruni titled "Catholicism Undervalues Women."
Donohue — author of
"The Catholic Advantage: Why Health, Happiness, and Heaven Await the Faithful," published by Image — told Malzberg:
"They're saying the other day that the Catholic Church undervalues women. They got 29 people on their masthead — 66 percent of them are male. The top six positions, 100 percent of them are male.
"This is a newspaper which . . . had to pay out for 562 women for sex discrimination. They got rid of [CEO] Janet Robinson, then they replaced her with a man.
"By the way, during the course of my investigation, guess what newspaper in the United States was against the women's right to vote in 1920?"