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July 29, 2009
EWTN Fails to Respond to CAMERA’s Letter
Caution to EWTN viewers: World Over can’t be relied upon for the whole truth and nothing but the truth - at least when it comes to the Israeli/Arab conflict.
Eternal Word Television Network's News Director has failed to respond to CAMERA’s letter containing constructive criticism of the May 15 broadcast of The World Over in which Br. Aloysius Florio (of Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Wash., D.C.) provided unbalanced, inaccurate commentary pertaining to Israel during a review of the Pope’s May 8-15 Holy Land trip. Likewise, follow-up voice-mail and e-mail messages to Mr. Arroyo have failed to elicit replies. Although EWTN is the pre-eminent Roman Catholic TV network, it doesn’t speak for the hierarchy of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church since it is not under the authority of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The CAMERA letter pointed out that Br. Florio had reinforced the propagandistic claims made at the Pope's inter-religious dialogue by an unscheduled speaker, Sheik Tayseer Tamimi. Furthermore, neither Br. Florio nor Mr. Arroyo informed viewers that the Pope’s spokesman had condemned Tamimi’s diatribe. Likewise, Br. Florio provided a one-sided criticism of Israel’s security barrier citing suffering by Palestinians. But neither Br. Florio nor Mr. Arroyo informed viewers that the security barrier, together with the use of security checkpoints, minimized the number of Palestinian terrorist incursions into Israel, thus saving many Israeli lives (authoritative statistics are cited in the letter) and, as well, eliminating Palestinian casualties which would have resulted from Israeli incursions responding to the attacks.
CAMERA urged EWTN, in the interest of fairness and accuracy, to issue a clarification (or correction) in a forthcoming broadcast of the World Over.
Read the July 14, 2009 CAMERA letter to EWTN.
Posted by MK at July 29, 2009 12:58 PM
Comments
Please note, many EWTN watchers are extremely aware & sensitive to the need to protect Israel. Nobody knows how to do this however. And the little ones in Palestine must see a model of adults who wish to protect them. They don't get that at home in their own society! It's hard to just say we must protect Israel at any expense. Although, that is what most people think. I am conservative but not radical. I did not vote for the current administration. They do not seem to address this issue as one of their concerns. Most religions believe in protecting women & children except the one which uses them as human shields & bearers of bombs.
Posted by: Marie Ruden at August 17, 2009 02:16 AM
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