It’s a bit overdue, but good for Steve Jalsevac and the editors of LifeSiteNews for defending their publication as well as Hilary White, their Rome correspondent. (If you don’t know the backstory, you can read it here and here.)
Jalsevac writes about being on the receiving end of a “Mugging by Catholic Bloggers“:
Criticism naturally comes with the territory of journalism and should always be expected. However, when this kind of crude assault is hurled so recklessly from fellow Catholics or other Christians, it does leave us unsettled. Moreover, when such vile language and character assassination comes from Catholics who are published at influential Catholic publications, it is also a concern for the writers’ own Catholic reputation and that of their employers.
LifeSiteNews does not claim to be a Catholic organization. We have many good and faithful Catholics on staff, but we do not claim to be a Catholic organization and our reporting is intended for people of all faiths and even no faith.
Nothing written by LifeSiteNews ever remotely approaches the level of calumny in the condemnations and criticisms seen in the Facebook posts mentioned. We explicitly forbid our writers from making such comments and are constantly removing similar comments from readers commenting under our reports. That is not free speech. We consider it to be an abuse of freedom. We also have a policy of never responding in kind to such comments.
However, a natural response is: “Where is the Christianity in any of these comments?” It boggles the mind that anyone would publicly exhibit such a total lack of charity for all the world to see and think that they are thus exhibiting love of God or properly defending the Church or Pope Francis.
We often encourage our readers to be very respectful in any communications they make in response to our reports. We recognize that condemnatory, hostile, and disrespectful communications will always cause harm and hardly ever help advance the cause of life and family.
Why the scandal of such ad-hominem attacks are permitted by well-known Catholic websites is a puzzle. LifeSiteNews is only one of many victims who have been targeted and at times harmed by these all-too-frequent, very uncharitable, and careless blog postings over the years.
Productive dialogue is impossible without mutual respect. Still, we never close the door to future communications if circumstances change. Many of us on the LifeSiteNews team have gone through major life conversions, so we understand the importance of forgiveness and charity.
One of our team did attempt to reach out and dialogue. Unfortunately, all attempts to respond to the criticism charitably, humbly, and privately, resulted in further, public attacks against the professionalism and integrity of LifeSiteNews, and on the personal character of LifeSiteNews personnel.
The editors also penned this, “In Defense of Hilary White“:
In recent weeks LifeSiteNews has been the object of defamatory posts on popular social media sites by various well-known and influential writers. The attack on the veracity and integrity of our organization and our writers was severe and merits response.
Every person who writes for LifeSiteNews undertakes this very difficult work with limited pay, often very long hours, and much stress. They do this precisely because of their love for God and for truth. We take it very personally when anyone attempts to demean one of our team. Our writers are an exceptional group of people. They are family.
Our Rome Correspondent Hilary White was singled out in the recent attack. Hilary is one of the favorites of many LifeSiteNews readers and one of our longest-serving journalists. She is an exceptionally skilled writer with unique perspectives and creative talent. We absolutely stand by her honesty, integrity, and professionalism as a journalist. As our only full-time, dedicated pro-life journalist in Rome, Hilary will continue to cover pro-life news from the Vatican, Italy, and Europe.
LifeSiteNews Reporter Hilary White
Do the editors agree with every opinion or belief that Hilary, or any of our writers, personally holds? Of course not. They have the freedom to be who they are and, within reason, express the range of their views in other forums. But what finally gets published on LifeSiteNews is decided upon by the editors, through whom every story must pass.
It’s nice to see LifeSite doing the right thing. It’d be nicer to see those who attacked them and Hilary White doing so, but I’m afraid I won’t hold my breath.
Steve, you’ll probably get some smarmy, theologically correct, public apology from Mark Shea. Ignore it. Shea uses such apologies to cover himself. Once that’s done, he immediately returns to the behavior for which he apologized. I speak from personal experience. Shea’s “contrition” is neither contrite nor repentant. “Forgiveness,” all too often in the Christian world, means not holding offenders accountable for their actions. Shea has exploited that attitude for at least a decade. I would suggest that you and your readers demand that Shea’s, Fisher’s, et al’s free-lance clients hold them accountable for such attacks. I don’t know what the specifics would entail but taking such a stand would be a start, at least.
On Shea’s periodic “remorse events”, see, for instance, the comments thread here:
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2911/sola_shea.aspx
Eh, it’s the old penny’s worth of repentance for a pound’s worth of self-righteous abuse. I suppose yet another encore performance will be coming along soon – he must be due. As observed by others, it leads to nothing.
Oh when I was in in love with you,
Then I was clean and brave;
And miles around the wonder grew
How well I did behave.
And now the fancy passes by,
And nothing will remain;
And miles around they’ll say that I
Am quite myself again.
Great news!!!
I am happy to know that LifeSite News is standing by and with Hilary White, as well they should. She is a very credible writer who understands her Faith. Her insights on the Vatican situation as it unfolds is oh so necessary in this pitiful climate of denial of reality among so many. The decision to keep her as the Rome correspondent is just, smart, and comforting to those readers who want the truth of what is happening in the Catholic Church during this dangerous time of apostasy.
Good for them. But how does this comport with their initial “clarification”, or whatever you want to call it? Is this sort of an apology for the initial (semi) apology? I’m unclear on this.
Good for Steve Jalsevac. I think they got a LOT of letters written in support of Hilary and of Lifesite’s work….I’m happy to say I sent one.
Yes, I believe they did get many letters – they got two from me: one to Hilary herself and one to LifeSiteNews in general.
I’m puzzled at the public character assassination allowed on some otherwise solid, Catholic publications. Shea and his ilk must simply be kept on board for the numbers he draws from outraged readers who can’t believe the lack of charity portrayed.
Chris Jackson, a write for the Remnant, says that Ms Fisher got some kind of promise from Lifesite News that Hilary won’t cover the Pope anymore?
I think the thing to understand is that LSN isn’t a Catholic outlet, and is also not a general news outlet. If it’s not a life issue, they’re typically not touching it. They don’t cover the pope except when he touches on subjects related to life issues.
The de Paolis story, inasmuch as it dealt with the promotion of the homosexual agenda by the clergy, fell under that umbrella.
Hilary is still the Rome correspondent on the issues LSN covers. So if the pope does something else related to these issues, it’s reasonable to expect that she will be assigned to cover it, just like she was assigned to cover this one. I have no reason to believe that this will not be the case.
The papacy is simply not a major area of coverage for LSN. Only when relevant.
Lynne, who the Hell is Simcha Fisher to extract that kind of a promise? She’s nothing but a two-bit twit. If I were LSN or Hilary White,I would file a defamation of character suit. If more people did that sort of thing, then EWTN would *have* to re-evaluate using Shea or Fisher on its outlets.
I think you’d discover if you researched it that defamation suits generally result in 1) pyrrhic victories or 2) losses. E. Howard Hunt was once interviewed on Larry King and was asked by a caller why he hadn’t sued over some false contention made about him. He chuckled and offered a precis on his participation in one such suit and said, no, he had the sense never to do that again.
—
Shea is so intemperate I cannot imagine he would not have been in deep yoghurt at some time or another in a country with more sensible defamation law than our own has. Rod Dreher tends to retail other people’s defamatory contentions so might be protected. Cannot say about S. Fischer.
Ah, thanks!