It must be a rule of journalism I’ve never heard of…

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 8:48 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

It must be a rule of journalism I’ve never heard of… 2015-03-13T20:48:32+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

You know, the rule that says no matter what a left-leaning columnist is writing about, no matter how well or intelligently he or she is writing it, there must, at some point, be at least two paragraphs of gratuitous, or stupid, or conscience-clearing criticism of Republicans or conservatives, even if the columnist’s topic really has nothing to do with same.

In Richard Cohen’s case, I’m thinking that his two paragraphs (in an otherwise important and straight-on column) are partly gratuitous – he simply cannot help himself – and partly a conscience-clearing mechanism. As a straight man admonishing gay men, before he can write his thoughts he needs to first prove that he couldn’t possibly be a homophobe, or be driven by any sort of gay-hatred because, as we all know, the he is the noble warrior who does battle against
the calculated homophobia or pathetic ignorance of several Republican administrations, which continues to this day. Just recently, for instance, the new secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, warned PBS against airing an episode of the children’s show “Postcards From Buster” because it showed a family headed by a lesbian couple. She undoubtedly will get a medal from the president for this.

How tiresome. Cohen may feel noble and tolerant, but he’s also being a bit disingenuous here. The episode he cites was pulled because some reasonable questions were put forward: is publicly-funded television supposed to promote or advocate ideas which are outside of the mainstream, or objectionable to a portion of the population? When does a presentation trip over a line and move from instructive entertainment into indoctrination? Those are NOT unreasonable questions. In fact, they are questions Cohen himself would ask if – for example – the same program suddenly presented a strictly conservative – or even a Christian conservative – view of marriage and family. There is room for, and probably a need for, programming that addresses same-sex parenting, but when you’re doing it with public money, you have to respect the other half of the country who doesn’t much like having their ideals steamrollered, no matter how unpleasant you find taking those unsophisticated, mouth-breathing yahoos into consideration.

Cohen could have just written (and given more space to) his information and thoughts on the appearance of this newer, deadlier strain of AIDS…but…no, he had to get the swipe in, had to prove his chops, and yes, he did take the obligatory two paragraphs to do it. The second paragraph propagated the whole dishonest idea that abstinence education is the continuing effort to keep young people as ignorant as possible about sex and, especially, contraception.

Still tiresome. I hate to break it to Mr. Cohen, but teenagers don’t need to be told how to have sex, or how to find and put on a condom. It’s not rocket science. And they know all about sex, condoms and AIDS prevention because it’s all over the television day after day, and modern parents are not the squeamish, skittish, euphemism-laden creampuffs they were 30 or 40 years ago. Most of us (every parent I know in my age group) have been talking to our children about sexual responsibility, and the difficult ideals that are worth pursuing, since they were very young.

Things have changed. It is not 1965 anymore. What Cohen, and so many others don’t get – willfully refuse to “get” – is that it’s EASY to throw a condom (and tacit approval) at a kid, it’s much more difficult to give them the social and informational tools they can use to abstain from sex until they’re more mature and (hopefully) commited.

We’re talking about kids, here. And kids need and want guidelines and boundaries and help in learning how to manage the feelings and pressures of the age. It’s harder to teach self-control, harder to teach the social means by which one can actually resist having sex at 16 (believe me, it can and is being done) but the fact that it’s hard is what makes it great. If you want easy…you pass out the condoms, thus giving kids a false sense of security and making it that much more difficult for girls to say “no.” After all…he’s got a condom…what bad could happen?

I realize I haven’t addressed the main topic of Cohen’s column – and as I said in the beginning, it’s an important topic; I’m glad Cohen wrote about it. But I’m sick to death of the obligatory-two-paragraph-swipe-at-the-right inserted into every column, no matter how important, particularly when the two paragraphs serve to promote misinformation, and prejudicial memes…or when they only serve to reassure and succor a smug illusion of superiority.

The Fourth Estate

Previous Post

February 18, 2005

Martin Peretz tries to pull the Dems back from the cliff

Next Post

February 18, 2005 Breaking: A new hearing for Terri Schiavo

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I hid two spies on my roof and tied a scarlet cord in my window to save my family. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Tamar Ruth Rahab Deborah