Why Didn’t Anybody Notice?. . . CNN Admits “Racism” Charge Is A Farce

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

“Trump is Fanning the Flames of White Supremacy and Hatred in Our Country,” Joe Biden tweeted on Divine Mercy Sunday. Not to be outdone, Bernie Sanders called the president “a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe and a religious bigot.”
The prestige press is unanimous: Trump is “racist.” Why? He blames China for its coverup of the Wuhan Virus. He imposes a temporary immigration ban. Case closed.
Meanwhile, the always entertaining Cong. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) charges that the virus itself causes “straight up racism” because folks now refuse to go to Chinese restaurants.
Amidst the changes we’ve experienced during the current unpleasantness, this outworn charade struggles valiantly on. As their forays continue to collapse, the Left retreats to what we once called a “broken record,” but today is known as a “feedback loop.”
It’s all racism, all the time.

So What If It’s A Lie?

Remember when the fake Vietnam veteran beat the drum in Nick Sandmann’s face at the 2019 March for Life? Nick and his classmates from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky were waiting for their ride near the Lincoln Memorial when the Indian agitator assaulted them.
But Nick and several of his classmates had bought MAGA hats as souvenirs on the Mall. So they must be bigots, right? Well, the usual suspects piled on, with CNN in the lead, calling Sandmann a “racist.”
But then Sandmann’s family got a lawyer — in fact, America’s foremost libel lawyer, L. Lin Wood. Wood filed suit against several media outlets. Surprisingly, the CNN network was the first to fold. But why were they so fast to cash out?
According to media lawyer Charles Glasser, “[CNN] initially filed a motion to dismiss [the case], making the argument that calling somebody a ‘racist’ is not a provable fact and therefore does not rise to the level of libel. I think it’s extremely telling — it really got overlooked — that CNN argued that there can’t be a factual basis for calling somebody a racist.”
So “racism” isn’t a fact at all? It’s just a useful epithet, empty of any content save hatred?
That’s what CNN argued to the court when Sandmann sued them. “Courts treat statements characterizing people as ‘racist’ as nonactionable opinion because they cannot be proved true or false,” they argued. “Sandmann cannot as a matter of law base a defamation claim on this statement as it offers an expression of opinion so subjective as to be unprovable.”
Unprovable? Curious, since an Internet search for “CNN Trump Racist” renders eleven million results. Are all of them “unprovable”?
By the way, CNN knew it had to cave quickly. It settled Sandmann’s $25 million suit for a reportedly handsome sum in order to avoid having a disastrous embarrassment in open court.
Enter Kentucky’s bishops. A few condemned Sandmann early on, but Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville and Covington Bishop Roger Foys quickly apologized when they learned the facts. Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, a committed supporter of LGBT causes, did not. He later complained that Sandmann’s lawyers had threatened to sue him as well.
All this raises a valid question: When will America’s bishops at the USCCB apologize for calling “most” whites “racist” for over thirty years? Will El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz ever apologize to the nine state attorneys general whom he called “hypocrites” and “Pharisees” in USA Today — all because they opposed illegal immigration?
Imagine nine of America’s top lawyers hiring Mr. Wood to pursue a libel case against Bishop Seitz. Of course, he knew they wouldn’t bother. But curiously, this virulent supporter of illegal immigration has been strangely silent since the Wuhan Virus came our way. (Nancy Ramos, communications director for the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, tells us that Bishop Seitz “will not be answering any further questions from The Wanderer.”)

The Past As Prologue

In November 2008, Archbishop Wilton Gregory spoke with authority as he welcomed the election of the most radically pro-abortion president ever as “a great step forward for humanity and a sign that in the United States the problem of racial discrimination has been overcome.”
Why the celebration?
In 2001, as bishop of Belleville, Gregory had been elected with great fanfare as the first African-American to lead the U.S. bishops’ conference. A year later, he was manipulated by then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to oversee the USCCB’s disastrous response to the abuse-and-coverup scandals.
After that debacle, how could he possibly continue to bear the mantle of authority?
The answer, my friend, isn’t blowing in the wind. The answer is “racism.”
After 2002, the USCCB was down for the count. Corrupted, morally bankrupt and financially faltering, bishops faced their moment of truth.
Looking the facts in the face, they froze — and then pivoted. In the years that followed, they circled the wagons and protected the dozens of their colleagues who had covered up, even enabled, abuse and abusers. Doling out to tort lawyers the faithful’s donations by the billions, not one of them ever had to testify in court on criminal charges.
Disgraced and despondent, they needed a mantra they could use as their moral cover. And then, there it was, staring them in the face: Racism! The well-worn canard conferred upon them a sense of absolute superiority— why, “most” of their sheep were racists, after all. They had taught this libel as magisterial truth since 1979, and they weren’t going to let it go.
Meanwhile, Gregory’s acclaimed messiah perpetuated his party’s bloody pro-abortion holocaust. Sure, he duped Cardinal Dolan on abortion and Obamacare. That was indeed “troubling,” in bishop-speak. But the first African-American president championed so many items on the USCCB’s social justice agenda! National Health Care. The welfare state. Higher taxes. Gun control. Immigration.
And what about racism? Instead of ending it, Obama perpetuated it, fomented it (remember Trayvon?), and gloried in it.
Did Bishop Gregory ever call him out on it? Did any bishop? Why should they? “Racism” easily translates into “xenophobia,” “bigotry,” and “nativism,” the USCCB’s favorite slanders. They employ them to shame opponents of their illegal immigration NGO perfidy, which Obama funded with taxpayer dollars by the hundreds of millions every year.
In return, our beloved bishops gratefully gave him their moral imprimatur.

The Silence Close To Home

In Virginia, Ralph Northam, our notorious racist blackface infanticide-supporting governor, declares a lockdown, bars the Mass, leaves abortion mills open — and Virginia’s bishops fold. They are simply reluctant to confront powerful pro-abortion Democrats.
They did condemn Northam’s sordid choice of Good Friday to overturn Virginia’s protections for the unborn. But they have been silent on the 100 percent pro-abortion Catholic politicians who reside in their dioceses.
Fr. Jim Arsenault, pastor of Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) at Richmond’s St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, tells NPR that Kaine is a “devout Catholic.” Fr. Arsenault reportedly led a standing ovation for the senator when he was chosen to be Hillary Clinton’s 2016 running mate. (Deborah Cox, director of communications for the Richmond Diocese, did not respond to our request for information regarding any public criticism by Bishop Barry Knestout of Kaine’s support for abortion.)
Cong. Gerry Connolly (D., Fairfax) once studied in a Maryknoll seminary. Connolly has a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America. We have found no record of any public criticism by Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge of Connolly’s position. (Billy Atwell, director of communications for the diocese, did not respond to our request regarding any public criticism by Bishop Burbidge of Connolly’s support for abortion.)
Bad habits are hard to break.