Kansas City, Mo., Nov 5, 2011 / 15:01 pm
Kansas City Star staff members are offering no explanation of the paper's refusal to publish an ad from the Catholic League, a decision the group attributes to a bias against the Church.
“Almost two weeks ago, we contacted the Kansas City Star about running a full-page ad on Sunday, October 30,” said Catholic League President Bill Donohue. The ad criticized the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) – the subject of a recent Star profile – and defended Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn against what Donohue calls “politically motivated attacks.”
“On October 25, we submitted the ad exactly the way they wanted it, and indeed gave them our credit card information to pay the $25,000 fee,” Donohue recalled in an Oct. 31 statement. “On October 26, we received an e-mail which said that 'The Publisher has respectfully declined and did not share the details as to why.'”
Donohue claims the Star, which called for Bishop Finn's resignation in a June 4 editorial, has formed an “alliance” against the bishop with the abuse survivor's network. That relationship, he says, caused the paper to turn down his ad accusing SNAP of “taking aim at Bishop Finn.”