No balance and fairness for Cardinal Levada
Your editorial “A Vatican on defense” [Opinion, April 5] clearly misrepresents the criticism by Cardinal Levada of The New York Times article on the Murphy case.
The Cardinal’s statement in no way criticizes the paper for writing on the Murphy case, but rather criticizes the article for lack of “balance” and “fairness.” It is certainly proper for the media to cover all aspects of the sexual-abuse scandal, but it is also proper for a reader to criticize a newspaper’s article for lack of “balance” and “fairness.”
Unfortunately, the media often portray any challenge to the fairness of any media attacks against the Pope as a protest against any media coverage of the entire subject or any coverage of sexual abuse in the church.
In treating the current accusations, the media all too often completely forget and fail to mention the Pope’s brutally frank letter to the Irish people, his strong support of the U.S. bishops’ new policies against sexual abuse, his meetings with victims of abuse and other steps taken by him to stop abuse.
— Peter Anderson, Mercer Island