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A publication of Traditional Catholics of America t Editor: Fr. Francis E. Fenton. STL t Volume IX. No. 8 t December l, 1988
John Kenneth Weiskittel
n more than one occasion in these pages we have majority, the suggestion that our major news media is
cited Pope Piux Xi's complaint that a "powerful controlled seems ludicrous and unthinkable. Such a
factor in the diffusion of Communism is the conspiracy concept is possible. they tell us, in a totalitarian
of silence on the part of a large section of the non- country-but not here where freedom of speech guaran-
Catholic press of the world." What led His Holiness to tees open discussion of the issues.
reach this conclusion was the fact that the press wasn't
reporting Red atrocities in Russia, Mexico and Spain This sounds good in theory but it misses the point on
and that it had "relatively little to say concerning a several counts. Principal among these are: ( l) the clear
world organization as vast as Russian Communism." record of deception by major U.S. news-gathering
These remarks were made in Pope Pius· 193 7 encycli- organs on a consistent basis for 50 years or more; (2)
cal, Divini Redemptoris. There it was also noted that "(t)his the monopolistic control wielded by a relative few of
silence is due in part to short-sighted political policy these organs; and (3) evidence that control of the major
and is favored by various occult forces which for a long media has been the goal of interests favoring the es-
time have been working for the overthrow of the Chris- tablishment of a One World Government. (See "The
tian Social Order." News Media and Secret Societies" in the June I, 1987
issue of The Athanasian.)
In the five decades that have passed since then. the
news media has continued this "conspiracy of silence" Control of the press has been a reality in this nation
by hailing subversives as reformers. whitewashing the since at least the tum of the century. That this has long
horrors ofJife in Communist lands (while assuring us of been the state of affairs is evident from the following
the peaceful intentions of their leaders), and applying rare moments of journalistic candor in the first third of
the tar brush to those who speak out against the the l 900's. John Swinton, a New York editor. in an ad-
militant. atheistic Communist conspiracy. So dress given at an annual dinner of the New York Press
continuous and unrelenting has this barrage of propa- Association, made this comment:
ganda been over the years that we may, with the luxury
of hindsight, say that the situation is even worse than There is no such thing as an independent Press in
Pius XI suspected. The media's slanting of the news that America. if we except that of little country towns.
may be attributed to political myopia is slight in com- You know this and I know it. Not a man among you
parison with that which is not merely favored, but ac- dares to utter his honest opinion. Were you to
tively financed and directed, by the enemies of Christ utter it, you know beforehand that it would never
the King. (Can any of us doubt that had today's re- appear in print … The man who would be so fool-
porters operated in first century Jerusalem, Our Lord ish as to write his honest opinion would soon be
would have been tried, convicted and sentenced by on the streets in search for another job. It is the
them even before He faced Pilate?) duty of a New York journalist to lie, to distort. to
revile, to toady at the feet of Mammon. and to sell
It is that last point that we wish to focus on here because his country and his race for his bread, or what
this journalistic dishonesty has resulted in the en- amounts to the same thing, his salary. We are the
slavement of over a billion people in the 51 years that marionettes. These men pull the strings, and we
have transpired since Pope Pius Xi's Divini Redemptoris. dance. Our time, our talents, our lives, our capaci-
At this moment it is engaged in the sellout of countries ties are all the property of these men; we are intel-
such as South Africa, Chile. South Korea, Thiwan and El lectual prostitutes. (cited. Father Denis Fahey, The
Salvador. Moreover, it has now entered what for Amer- Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World. Regina.
ica is the most dangerous phase of its game – convincing l 964 ed .. pp. xi-xii)
the American people that it is in our nation's best interest to cozy up
to the "new, improved" Soviet Union. Catholic writers of the period also made note of the
fact. Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton saw similar
Hidden Hands On The Control problems with the British press. Fathers Leslie Rumble
To a sizable portion of our fellow citizens. probably a and Charles Carty, a little later. made the contention:
It is not only conceivable, but it is morally certain tifies 3 5 major news media figures of the late
that the Capitalist Press as well as the Communist I 950's-early l 960's as members of this One World
Press wiil be guided, not by a love of truth. but by clique. but warns that the list is "indicative. rather than
expediency in its presentation of matter for its comprehensive and informative." (Western Islands ed ..
readers. That is why. to form a just estimate of 1965. pp. 115-116) Among them are Marquis Childs
what we read, we must watch the trend of world (syndicated columnist). Norman Cousins (Editor-in
events and discern the motives of various parties Chief. Saturday Review of Literature), George Gallup (public
and systems in the world. Then, in the light of opinion analyst). David Lawrence (President and Editor-
those motives. we can estimate the worth of the in-Chief, U.S. News & World Report). Irving Levine (NBC
information put before us by the various journals commentator). Henry R. Luce (Publisher. Time/Life).
devoted to the interests of any given party. You Malcolm Muir (Chairman of the· Board and Editor~in·
see. I not only maintain that the "Capitalistic Chief, Newsweek), William S. Paley (Chairman of the
Press" misrepresents issues on Catholicism but it Board. CBS), James B. Reston (editorial writer, New York
will misrepresent almost anything should the ex- Times). Elmo Roper (public opinion analyst). David
pediency of the moment require it And so will any Sarnoff (Chairman the Board. NBC and RCA). William
newspapers published by any parties or systems L. Shirer (author. news commentator). Robert Straus
in which the prudence of this world only is ac- (part owner of Hor.iwn and American Heritage) and Arthur
cepted as a standard. The materialistic outlook. Hays Sulzberger (Chairman of the Board. New York
whether of Capitalism or Communism. has little in Times).
common with moral obligation. (Radio Replies.
Vol. IL Radio Replies Press. 1940. p. 282) When we move ahead to 1980 the CFR roster shows
209 members in key communications positions. Among
The foregoing indicates a basic difficulty with the secu- them are a few carryovers from Smoot's list (Levine.
media: There is great temptation for the publisher or Paley, Reston) _and dozens of new faces. including
producer to place the profit motive above every other Robert Bartley (Editor, Wall Street fournal), AM. Rosen-
consideration. If. say. distortion or purple prose or thal (Executive Editor. New York Times), Max Frankel
sensational accusation is required to outsell the com- (Editorial Page Editor. New York Times). Roger Heyns
petitor. few media heads let scruples stand in the way. (Director. Times Mirror Co .. publishers of the Los Angeles
Now. this opportunism opened the door to the One Times). Joseph Kraft (Columnist Los Angeles Times).
Worlders who·realized. writes Gary Allen: Katherine Graham (Chairman. Washington Post, and
Director. Newsweek and Associated Press), Nicholas
. , , in order to maintain control over government Katzenbach (Director. Washington Post), Lewis Lapham
you must control mass media: therefore. the (Editor. Harper's). William F Buckley, Jr. (Editor-in-Chief.
Establishment has been deeply involved in National Review). Maynard Parker (Executive Editor. News-
financing and manipulating the American commu- week). George Will (Content Editor. Newsweek). Edward
nications industry. ("The Media: A Look at Estab- Thompson (Editor·in-Chief. Reader's Digest), Harry
lishment Newspapers," American Opinion. Septem- Grunwald (Editor-in-Chief. Time), Ray Adam (Director,
ber 1970. p. 4) ABC), Ted Koppel (Newsman. ABC). Barbara Walters
(Newswoman. ABC), Dan Rather (News Anchorman,
The "C.F.R." mentioned here is the Council on Foreign CBS). Mar1in Kalb (Newsman. CBS). Daniel Schoor
Relations, America's shadow government that seeks to (Newsman. CBS and CNN-now a news analyst for
replace U.S. sovereignty with a global state. The CFR's National Public Radio). Richard Sonnenfeldt (Executive
exclusive membership has. since the group's founding Vice President, NBC), David Brinkley (Newsman. NBC),
in l 92 l. included major figures in government, finance. John Chancellor (Newsman. NBC}, Robert McNeil (News
business. academia. the military and communications. Anchorman. Jim Lehrer (News Anchorman. PBS),
Walter Lippmann. one of the most influential colum- Keith Fuller (President, Associated Press) and H.L
nists of the century. was a CFR member for decades Stevenson (Vice President and Editor-in-Chief. United
and. from 1932-37, a director. According to John Press International). (See list. ''Who Controls the
Stormer in None Dare Call It Treason, Lippmann, who was Media?", accompanying Robert W. Lee's article, "Con-
widely regarded as the "Dean of American Newspaper- firming the 'Liberal' Establishment." in American Opinion,
men." joined the British Fabian (Socialist) Society in March 1981. p. 33.)
1909 while a Harvard student (where he helped form
and was president of the Intercollegiate Socialist In some instances. CFR control continues in a news or-
Society in the same year) and was a founder of the leftist gan from generation to generation. The Washington Post.
Americans for Democratic Action in 1947. (Liberty Bell for example. writes Robert W. Lee. "was purchased in
Press, 1964, pp. 145-146) 1933 by Eugene Meyer (C.F.R.), who was also the first
president of the World Bank. At Meyer's death. control
In The Invisible Government, one of the earliest books of the Post passed to his son-in-law Philip Graham
exposing the machinations of the CFR, Dan Smoot iden- (C.F.R.). After Graham committed suicide in 1963, his
THE ATHANASIAN 2 DECEMBER 1. I 988
wife (Eugene Meyer's daughter) assumed her present "food shortage" and charged: "Any report of a famine
position as the paper's publisher and chief executive in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propa-
officer. Mrs. Katherine Graham is one of a handful of ganda." (cited, ibid) Recently, syndicated columnist
women to be admitted to membership in the C.F.R. John Chamberlain has alluded to an incident that clearly
since its ban on women was dropped in 1970. (She shows Duranty's mendacity. Writes Chamberlain:
joined that year.)" (op cit p. 94) Lee reveals that the New
York Times was passed from Adolph Ochs (an early CFR … I was bowled over when, riding in the elevator
member) to his son-in-law, Arthur Hays Sulzberger in the Times building on West 43rd Street, l heard
(CFR), to his son-in-law, Orval E. Dryfoos (CFR), to its Duranty say that 3 million Soviet citizens had
present head, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (openly CFR until perished at the end of the Twenties and in the
1971 ); and that Time Mirror Co., of which the Los Angeles early Thirties in Stalin's forced collectivization
Times is a division, was run by Franklin D. Murphy (CFR drives. Simeon Strunsky, the "Topics of the
from late 1950 to early 1970) and now is headed by its Times" columnist was a third man in the elevator.
President, Robert Erburu (CFR), and by Director Robert But not a word about the 3 million casualties to
Heyns (CFR). Stalin's mania appeared in Duranty's copy.
Indeed, he denied ever speaking to Strunsky and
While it is true that merely belonging to the Council on myself. The charitable assumption is that he was
Foreign Relations does not mean a person will sub- concerned about keeping his Soviet visa. ("Truth
scribe to its One World ideology (since some members, Has Always Been Elusive on Moscow Beat" Tampa
such as Spruille Braden, a former Assistant Secretary of Tribune, June 6, 1988, p. 9-A)
State, and Rear Admiral Chester Ward, were later to be
outspoken critics of the Council), yet, more often than Some honest reporters tried to get the truth out, in-
not those who linger in it do so out of basic agreement cluding Eugene Lyons (a Soviet apologist himself be-
with its aims. Certainly that is the case with the media fore he saw the horrors firsthand), William Henry
members of the CFR. Of those cited above, only Will Chamberlain (another journalist who became anti-Com-
and Buckley are considered conservative-and many munist) and Gareth Jones (a British writer who visited
on the right believe that they should be more properly the stricken area disguised as a tourist and was first to
called "Establishment conservatives" to indicate a less break the story to the English-speaking world). Allowed
than firm commitment to the values they are said to to visit the region as a friendly newsman, "Duranty
uphold or, worse, deliberate deception. (Buckley was undertook to refute Jones as the perpetrator of a 'big
one of the first to smear Robert Welch and counts as score' based on inadequate information,'· claiming that
close friends the likes of CFR Insiders Henry Kissinger "he had seen only well-dressed peasants and plump
and John Kenneth Galbraith.) babies." (ibid) Lyons contends that Duranty privately
confided to him and others that 1. 5 million had per-
The Judas ished in the Ukraine but, later, "When the issues of the
Journalists often like to say that they are writing the first Times carrying Duranty' s own articles reached me I
draft of history. Unfortunately, this is in some sense true (Lyons) found that they failed to mention the large
in that many initial reports of major news events in this figures he had given freely and repeatedly to all of us.··
century have been severely slanted. This bias has given (Assignmentin Utopia, Twin Circle ed., 1967, pp. 238-239)
Americans distorted views of events and public figures Duranty had ample opportunity to atone for his sins of
and has aided in the betrayal of several nations into omission in his 193 5 biography, l Write as I Please. We're
Communist slavery. A sampling of such dishonesty is in sorry to say he did no such thing; instead, he proved
order to demonstrate how consistently the controlled himself a great apologist for Stalin. describing the
media has taken the side of freedom's enemies. Russian Communism he covered for 14 years as "a
heroic chapter in the life of Humanity" and asking
I. Ukranfan Forced Famine rhetorically, "am I wrong in believing that Stalin is the
According to the House Committee on Un-American greatest living statesman … ?" (cited, Accuracy in Media
Activities, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered, and his Report, December-I, 1981, p. l) Others in the press corps
henchman Nikita Krushchev personally carried out, that aided the pro-Red cause were Maurice Hindus;
''the mass starvation and liquidation of six to eight mil- Anna Louise Strong (a functionary in the far-left Institute
lion Ukranians in the early l 930's." (cited, Stormer. p. of Pacific Relations who for years edited its propaganda
49) Among U.S. reporters in the Soviet Union during magazine, wrote articles for respectable magazines
that period was the New York Times Moscow correspon- such as Atlantic Monthly and was identified as a Commu-
dent Walter Duranty. When reports of the famine nist before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee-
began to circulate, Duranty, writing in the March 30, SISS); and Louis Fischer. who referred to what we today
I 93 3 Times, denied it with the claim: "There is no actual call Gulags as "a vast industrial organization and a big
starvation or deaths from starvation but there is educational institution" (a euphemism akin to saying
widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutri- that the Christians thrown to lions in ancient Rome were
tion." (cited, Accuracy in Media Report, December-I, 1981, participating in "a team sport"). Journalists who
p. 1) Six months later he attributed the deaths to a churned out the big lie were-then as now-never at a
THE ATHANASIAN 3 DECEMBER I, 1988
loss for work writes in Media the New York the New
Reed Irvine: Tribune and the Saturday Review of Literature, the
same critics made a point. recalls Robert Welch,
Reporters such as Eugene Lyons and Freda Utley. down, when they could not manage to have the
both of whom started out as Soviet sympathizers. publications ignored completely, such books as W,L,,
lost their en tree into those publications favored by White's Report on the or George Creel's Russia's
the intelligentsia when they tried to tell what was Race for Asia, or Freda Utley's Last Chance in China." (Again,
happening in Russia. Eugene Lyons has God Forgive Us, Belmont Publishing, no p. 52)
out that writers who tried to portray the Soviet The Times book reviewer at the time was Owen
Union realistically during l 930's were turned Lattimore (CFR). a author and State Depart-
away by editors "with platitudes about not wish- ment adviser who was in 195 identified by the SISS as
to Russia."' (ibid, p. 2) for 15 years "a · conscious, articuiate
instrument of the Soviet conspiracy." In 1961,
This is important on a number of Lattimore visited Outer Mongolia. His
counts. First it puts to rest the common misconception favorable account of there in Tne
the news only became enamored with the four months later the U.S. approved
Soviet Union when it was our World War II · "Sec- Mongolia's being in the United Nations.
it is a example (and perhaps the first (Stormer, pp. 12, 30; and M. Stanton Evans, The Politics of
of media collaboration with the ,w,,,orr, Devin-Adair. I p. 305) The controlled
ment on a policy pertaining to Communism. While media either denied that tens of millions of Chinese
American readers were told that Soviet regime was died under Mao or said that "reactionaries" were
a "heroic chapter" in history's annals. newly elected failed to say that heading included
Franklin Roosevelt became the first to give Christian missionaries and simple peasants.
Russia diplomatic recognition. And third, it
parallels the reluctance of many of the modern journal- l
ists to implicate the Soviet-backed Ethiopian regime for Immediately after China's fall in 1949 the call went up
its role in the famine that has that land. for recognizing the Mao regime but unforeseen factors
delayed this decades. I,, id Senator Joseph
McCarthy (R-Wl} to charg:- ~hat there were secur-
Chinese Nationalists under Chiang ity risks in the State Departrr 2nt who had played a
in a struggle to save their coun- , major role in the Communist conquest For his patriot-
Mao been trained in McCarthy was to the victim of one of the most
support. But he had other vicious of character assassination ever
John Stormer writes that at the end of World launched. With blessing of the Dwight Eisenhower
Warll: Administration. attacks rose up in the news media
vilifying McCarthy as a self-serving "witch hunter" who
the United States demanded that Chiang Kai-shek ruined the lives of innocent citi,ens, and ignoring the
the Communists representation in the that he backed his charge· –aimed at clearly
government of China. He refused. On the orders subversive-with hard evidence. The attacks were led
of General George Marshall, all American aid was by the New York Times CBS commentator Edward R.
withheld from Chiang. (op cit p. Morrow (CFR). In the fall of 1956, while most Americans
cheered the attempt by Hungarian freedom fighters to
While the Government was ensuring Mao's victory wrest their country from its Soviet slave lords. Walter
by withholding much needed military supplies from the Lippmann (echoing the State Department position)
Nationalists, the U.S. press was assuring the public that wrote in his October 26, 1956 column:
the Chinese Communists were somehow progressives.
Stormer points out: It is not in our own interests that the movement in
Eastern Europe should go so that no accom-
The Saturday Evening Post, C.Olliers. and other influen- modation with Russia is possible .. , In the interest
tial magazines were flooded with articles glorifying of peace and freedom .. , we must hope for a
the Chinese Communists as "agrarian reformers" time-not forever, but for a time-that the uprising
and with other Soviet-inspired materials. During in the satellite orbit will be stabilized at Titoism
the 194 3-49 period the Saturday Evening Post (cited, Stormer, p. 14 5)
published over 60 articles which promoted the
Communist line. (ibid, p, 3 I J And then came the media-State Department collabora-
tion in the betrayal of Cuba. Again, a New York Times
And while pro-Maoist books like Thunder Out of China, by reporter led the propaganda. This time the hatchet man
Time magazine correspondents Theodore H. White was Herbert L. Matthews (CFR) whose earlier work
(CFR) and Annalee Jacoby, and Edgar Snow's Red Star included the book The Yoke. and the Arrow, a dishonest
Over China won fulsome praise from reviewers in influ- history of the Spanish Civil War which, at the same time,
THE ATHANASlAN 4 DECEMBER l, 1988
v1:.1.0ccu the Communists who joined in that struggle era! William Westmorlana and the ilhnois Power
from all over world … " (Francis X. Gannon, Bio- Co.)
grapfticai Dictionary of tfte Left, Vol. L Western islands,
I p. 44 l) When the U.S. Ambassador to Cuba. Media invoivement also assisted the Carter State De-
Arthur Gardner, regularly sent reports detailing Fidel partment in toppling the Rhodesian government in
Castro's Communism to his superior, (the leftist head of favor of Communist dictator Robert Mugabe. And the
the State Department's Caribbean William tell the tragic truth about Afghanistan is still
Wieland), he was fired. was not allowed to another striking example of controlled American
brief his replacement T. Smith. Instead. Smith was press.
directed to Matthews, who told his Times readers
that Castro was a selfless and patriot.
(Stormer, pp. 50-51) Earlier this year Gorbachev: An Intimate Biography
appeared in bookstores libraries around the coun-
4. ' try. So favorable ls the portrait it paints of the Soviet
In the 1960' s the press demonstrated that it not only leader that one might well believe it to have been put
had the power to smear, as it had done to Senator together by Instead, it turns out to be the work
McCarthy. but to create false heroes, the best example of the editors of Time magazine. The Wall Street Journal,
being Martin Luther King. Using the pretense of civil which boasts of being "the diary of the American
rights, surrounded himself with Communists Dream." helped sell glasnost by carrying an advertising
ally, during his visit to the notorious Highlander Folk section bought by the Last November (I H6-87)
School), called America "the greatest purveyor of vio- Scholastic a grade-school newspaper, carried the
lence in the world" and enthusiastically sided with the Communist in an article entitled "World's Largest
Communists in Vietnam. Rather than do the responsi- Country Will Tum 70." Telling the students that many
ble thing by exposing him as a charlatan. reporters czars were bad and that ''Czar Nicholas II was especially
jumped at every opportunity to promote him as a pro- cruel.'' it ends on this "upbeat" note: "Nicholas II was
phetic figure during his life. a martyr in death and, with the Russian leader to call himself a czar. New
the passage of a national holiday in his honor. a hero of leaders started a different kind of government. That's
American history. If the media was quick to brush over something for the world's largest country to celebrate!"
his pro-Communist statements about Vietnam, it took Perhaps Krushchev knew something when confi-
the opposite tack concerning our fighting men there, dently told Americans 30 years ago that their grandchildren
who at best were characterized as outsiders that would be Communists.
weren't appreciated by the of Vietnam and, at
worst as drug-using criminals. Meanwhile, it glorified That there is Communist infiltration of our media is cer-
those who protested the war. "The Vietnam War was tain. British traitor Kim Philby, a double agent for
the first one in history," West German journalist Uwe Moscow. was so effective in posing as a pro-Nationalist
Siemon-Netto has aptly observed. "that was won reporter during the Spanish Civil War that General
one side essentially via the media the other side." Franco awarded him a medal. Australian Wilfred
(cited, Accuracy in Media Report. November-IL 1979. p. l) Burchett, whose articles frequently appeared in the U.S.
press during the Vietnam War, was positively identified
Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza shortly before by a defector as a KGB man. Another defector similarly
his assassination told American writer Jack Cox that the implicated Joseph Barnes. the former foreign desk
U.S. news correspondents were a major reason that his editor for the New York Herald Tribune. Cedric Parker.
country fell to Communism. He singled out Karen former editor of the Madison c.apital-Times. admitted
Young of the Washinqton Post and Alan Riding of the New his longtime membership in the Communist Party on his
York Times, adding that "Riding admitted to me that he deathbed. And Time used Pham Xuan An as a corre-
opposed my government and that he was a Socialist." spondent in his native Vietnam during the war-and he
{Nicaragua Betrayed. Western Islands. 1980. pp. 197-198) turned out to be a colonel for the Communist North
Another offender was 60 Minutes· Dan Rather, who in- Vietnamese military intelligence.
terviewed Somoza for two and a half hours (only a few
minutes of which were aired): Most journalists. of course, are neither CFR nor KGB but
are the products of liberal indoctrination. This does not
l didn't realize what the power of film editing really excuse them, however, for instances of deliberate bias.
meant. With that power. Rather cast me in any role Reed Irvine has said that, when a publisher avoids cer-
he chose. Everything good I said about Nicaragua tain stories in order to prevent "causing damage to the
was deleted. Any reference to (President Jimmy) image of the Communists or those on the left he serves
Carter's effort to destroy the government of Nica- the Communist cause just as surely as he would if he
ragua was deleted. Every reference to the Com- were getting paid by them. The proper question there-
munist activity and Cuba's participation was fore is not whether such an individual is in the pay of a
deleted. (ibid. p. Other victims of the 60 foreign power or is subject to the discipline of the
Minutes' treatment have included U.S. Army Gen- Communist party, but do his decisions follow a pattern
THE ATHANASIAN 5 DECEMBER 1, l 988
of harming the forces of freedom and benefiting the
enemies of freedom." (Aauracy in Media Report. May-IL
. 1978) The late Congressman Lawrence P. McDonald is a basic tenet of our Roman Catholic Faith that
(D-GAJ observed: "One method of counterattack is the Supreme Being. is the ultimate source of all
relentless public exposure of Communist propaganda. truth and that in the final analysis, all truth is such
disinformation. media bias and subversive connections because it corresponds to. and is in harmony with, the
of the leading Far Left activists." mind of Him Who is its divine author. Almighty God.
the same token. falsehood in whatever form-lies, dis-
The enemies we face are beginning to run out of tortions. misrepresentations. half-truths, hypocrisy-
foreign countries to ruin and will one day focus all their falsehood in any form is morally wrong. is immoral be-
attention here. We need to keep up on what is really cause it is in opposition to the mind of God, because it
happening around us so we can then inform our neigh- is contrary to divine truth. Truth. then, is not subjective
bors. Two publications that work hard to help us see in the sense that an individual determines for himself
between the lines are The New American and the Accuracy what constitutes truth. Rather it is objective. which is to
in Media Report. The New American (395 Concord Ave .. say that it exists whether we accept it or not whether
Belmont MA 02178-$39 per year; $22 per 6 months) we comprehend it or not Nor is truth determined by
is a biweekly magazine that combines news coverage majority opinion (')r a Galiup poll. It is. if you will, God-
with informative articles of historical interest. It is made. God-given. If something is true. it's true even if
strong on pro-life issues. national defense and general no one believes it: if something is false. it remains false
articles on the Conspiracy. but weak on Freemasonry even though everybody believes it. And further, truth is
and John Paul II (it only quotes him in a complimentary unchangeable. fixed. permanent. It is absolute: the
light). The Accuracy in Media Report ( l 27 5 K Street NW. same yesterday. today and always-as. indeed, is God
Suite 11 50. Washington, DC 20005-$ l 5 per year for Himself. the same yesterday. today and forever.
membership) is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on
media bias. It tackles the national news magazines. tele- Now. when we consider the concept of truth in relation
vision. radio and the major newspapers and does to moral law. there is the matter of conscience. And
praise examples of fairness as well: its weakness what is conscience? It is a judgment of the mind as to
seems to be its fuzziness on the extent to which the the moral goodness or badness of an action a person is
Insiders control the national Republican Party. contemplating or considering. a mental decision as to
the moral rightness or wrongness here and now of a
Although the USA assuredly can still saved. the stark particular course of action. If a person judges some-
reality is that the prospects are becoming ever darker. thing is morally all right and proceeds to act accord-
While there is still light. the moral obligation is ours to ingly, then is said to have acted in good conscience.
learn the truth and to fight for it. If we do not do so now. If. on the other hand. a person's conscience telis him
we shall one day suffer dearly for our negligence and some action is morally wrong and he nonetheless per-
complacency. t forms it then is said to have acted in bad con-
science. which is to say that he is guilty of sin.
"FREEMASONRY AND AMERICAN POLITICS"
The above is the title of the article by Mr. So far. so good. But supposing a person's conscience
Weiskittel which appeared in the previous issue of tells him that it is morally permissible to think or say or
Tfie Athanasian. So current and informative did l do something which is, in fact, something immoral. If
consider this article to be that an additional 1.200 one's conscience is a person's ultimate guide of con-
copies were printed {cost $182 .00) so as to have duct-and. properly understood. it is- then how can
a supply on hand for the bulk orders we were sure there be any wrong in a person's following his con-
to receive. Well. thus far l 38 copies have been or- science? Indeed, are we not obliged to act or not act, as
dered by a grand total of 8 subscribers! To say the the case may according to our conscience? Yes we
least not only is this extremely disappointing to are, but we have a prior obligation to have what is
me but very puzzling as well. Here we have an ar- called a correct conscience on moral matters, a con-
ticle exposing in clear terms the presence and the science. that whose directions or dictates are in har-
influence of the satanic evil of Freemasonry in the mony with the moral teachings of the Church or with
American government-and 8 subscribers con- objective moral truth. So. if a person, say, does some-
sider it worth their money and effort to spread the thing which his conscience tells him is morally all right
awful word by way of this fine article about this but which the Church says is morally all wrong, that per-
deadly enemy of Church and country. Such a pa- son is said to have a false or erroneous conscience. To
thetic response is quite beyond my understand- what extent if at all. he is guilty of sin in not having a
ing. Anyway. we stili have I .062 copies of the correct conscience in this or that matter depends on
article in case anyone else would care to order various circumstances. The fact remains though that we
w~. ~F.~~ have an obligation to have both a right or correct con-
science on moral matters and to act con-
THE ATHANASIAN 6 DECEMBER l, 1988
Fr. Francis Fenton
he saying, "honesty is the best policy," is not an through aid and trade, millions of dollars of the
accurate statement. Rather is honesty the only American taxpayers are being used to pay for the
policy because it is a virtue and its opposite a vice or nation's military defense. If the Communist empire is
moral evil. What is meant or implied in describing now our friend and ally, against whom or what is Amer-
honesty as the best policy is that a person who is ica preparing itself to defend? Any intelligent person in
honorable and upright and truthful will. sooner or later, this country today who contends that the USA is an
always win out or be vindicated in his encounters or anti-Communist nation is either lying or is woefully
dealings with those who are dishonest. While this may uninformed.
sometimes be the case, it is simply not true as a blanket
statement that a thoroughly honest individual will As for politicians, even the word has come to imply de-
always or even likely be victorious over a dishonest ceit. An honest politician is almost a contradiction in
person in worldly matters or as far as material things are terms. In the U.S. Congress (Senate and House of
concerned. On the contrary, in terms of fame or power Representatives) there are some honorable members
or material gain. dishonesty is often the "best" policy. but they are few-and becoming even fewer. The over-
But the truly and unreservedly sincere and honorable whelming majority of them are "masters of deceit"
individual is one whose honesty is not motivated by many of whom. I firmly believe, would sell their souls if
worldly or selfish reasons but simply for the reason that the price was right As for the man who will soon
God wills it. Honesty is the only policy. become the next President of the United States. how
sadly naive is anyone who honestly thinks that he will be
Dishonesty means lack of integrity, truth, sincerity. The substantially any different from his predecessors in that
term is used in this article in a general sense to include office over the past 50 years and more. ls it possible
such moral evils or sins as lying, hypocrisy, stealing, that George Bush is a man of moral principle and
cheating-in a word, deception of any kind. If rampant integrity, deeply religious, solidly anti-abortion, anti-
sexual immorality of every imaginable sort is the pri- Communist anti-Freemasonry pro-American-and
mary vice presently destroying the spiritual fiber and yet has made it to the presidency? ls it possible? Hardly.
soul of America (and it is), then surely dishonesty in one
form or another is next in line among the major im- But surely no better example of deception and hypo-
moralities of our day. crisy (and betrayal) can be cited than that of the
Conciliar Church. While dishonesty is very much a stark
In citing examples of the flagrant dishonesty currently reality among most of the so-called mainline denomina-
so widespread upon the American scene, the one that tions and in the World and National Councils of
first occurs to me is the massive lie machine known as Churches, yet nowhere. l venture to say, has more
the national news media. The outright falsehoods, the destruction been wrought as a consequence of dishon-
half-truths, the misleading propaganda. the disinforma- esty than in the Conciliar Church. Because so much
tion being put out by that media on a daily basis across this has been treated in the previous issues of this
the country-this is a stark fact which no intelligent in- newsletter, there is no need to do so further in this
formed. honorable individual would deny. 'Tis no article. Suffice it to say that on all levels from the
wonder that multitudes of the rank and file of the Vatican on down. dishonesty in one form or another
American people are in blissful ignorance as to the has been and remains rampant in the Conciliar Church.
awful truth of what is really happening to the USA (The And so overwhelmingly effective has this satanic and
exceedingly dishonorable-with but relatively few ex- Masonic deception been to date that millions of mem-
ceptions-American press is the subject of Mr. bers actually believe that they are still Roman Catholics!
Weiskittel ·s article in this issue of The Athanasian.)
But dishonesty is hardly limited to the media and civil
As for the American government and politics. dis- government and politicians and the Churches. It
honesty of all kinds is to be found therein in abundance. abounds in so many other areas as well-in business,
In the area of the federal government alone deception, entertainment education, etc. (Anyone who knows the
falsehood, hypocrisy are widespread as, for example, truth about the National Education Association (NEA)
in its dealings with South Africa, Nicaragua, Soviet and its ultimate aims is well aware that the true
Russia, Red China. the United Nations. etc. While the education of America's youth is definitely not one of
USA and American businessmen and bankers bolster those aims. What the NEA is actually accomplishing is
and build up the Soviet economy and military the degradation of America's youth.) And so. while
THE ATHANASIAN 7 DECEMBER 1. 1988
Conscience·· 6
if it is a correct
are in harmony
reason.
"r,·,to<CC and to live by
truth is con-
by the Church.
daily lives our
a dependable
or correct
is. again. one
tions are in conformity
G:hurch. a right or correct
rr.1'\•~r,,::,r,ro.-::i,nrl having the courage to abide by and to
act according to its thereby live
in a manner pleasing to God as becomes traditional
Roman Catholics. t
situation.
truth. do they
what they
de!,Pl~;e hypocrisy of any It was announced in the l, I issue of
shun any taint t\inana.s1w1 that, l 1e following issue
of the strongest 15, 1988). the would be
.-01:::at-o,r1 to hypocrisy.) Are slncerity $12 .00 a year for the and Mexico.
in their daily lives? In a a number of not read
in dishonesty, are we it because we
remarkably different? Is S 12.00 for
our truly distinctive over the past
in our divine a total of 92 I
means to be c.v,,m,-,, is probably
we the obligation to
to be?t
by Traditional
(Jan. 15. Mar. l, Apr. 15, June J. July 15. l, Oct. I 5. Dec I )
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