Cleansing Fire

Defending Truth and Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church

D&C Columnist Trashes Pro-Life Activist

July 17th, 2009, Promulgated by Dr. K

Denise-Marie Santiago, a Democrat & Chronicle liberal columnist whose feature article appears frequently at the bottom of the B-section, printed this morning a rather nasty attack against pro-life activist, and founder of Operation Rescue, Randall Terry. As if her glowing adoration for Sonia Sotomayor in her last article needed to be topped, Ms. Santiago devotes a good 1/3 of the front page of the B-section to insulting the fine works of Mr. Terry, and to an extent, the pro-life movement in general. Below are various excerpts from her article with added commentary in blue, see how many pro-abortion, liberal biases you can notice in her rant.

First, the headline: “Abortion foe Terry still up to his old antics[Right away notice how she is painting Terry, and pro-lifers, in a negative light. We are “abortion foes.” Though I do not disagree with the meaning of the term, it is being used to paint a negative picture.]

“…who made a name for himself some years ago by using dead fetuses and other stunts in his fight against abortion rights [“abortion rights”? “stunts”? Starting to see her position on this issue?]

He also trained the protesters who this week were arrested for disrupting Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing[I remind you that her last article put Judge Sotomayor on a pedestal.]

…what the used-car salesman turned anti-abortion prophet has been up to in the decade or so since his celebrity waned.” [First, she uses a deliberate attack against his prior profession to weaken his credibility. So what if he was a used-car salesman? Are you trying to paint him as some kind of shifty fellow who sold people lemon cars? And what about Barack Obama? He was just a community organizer before he worked his way into politics. She also tries to brush him aside by saying his popularity has “waned”. Waned so much that it’s worth writing an entire article about him?]

Prophet, I say, because he talks about having visions.” [Do you have any proof, Ms. Santiago that he does not have visions?]

I tried calling his cell phone… but I couldn’t even leave a message because his mailbox was full. No doubt others were calling to ask what he was thinking.[“No doubt”? Again, where’s the proof? Maybe his voicemail was full because of friends and supporters giving messages of encouragement. You do know that not everyone shares your view on abortion.]

…he sounds no different than any other celebrity trying to eke out 17 minutes of… fame[Again, back to trying to brush him away by suggesting he is old news. And liberals claim they want dialogue…]

He’d always sought the limelight[He’s doing this just to satisfy his own ego, and not to save millions of babies?]

When that didn’t work out, Terry returned to the area as a born-again Christian [Now what, he became a Christian because his dreams of fame failed? This sounds like she is trying to establish a cause and effect relationship between the two events.]

In fact, Terry’s then-wife (he’s since divorced her and remarried)[Notice how she is saying that he “divorced her” in order to portray him as a bad guy. There may have been trouble in the marriage which led to a mutual separation.]

That his own aunt worked… for the local chapter of Planned Parenthood made his own story more complex [Umm… no it doesn’t, Ms. Santiago. Are you really that desperate for fodder that you need to dig up every detail about his family, both immediate and otherwise? My uncle supports Barack Obama, but that had no impact on me whatsoever. It did not make my support for McCain “more complex”.]

Though his ways have alienated many in the pro-life movement[Ah, she finally decides to use the term pro-life… and the article is almost over! For the record, this is the one and only time she uses the term “pro-life” in the entire article. Also, I strongly disagree that he has alienated pro-lifers, if anything he has rallied them even stronger to the cause.]

…others pay the rent on his Washington home.[Very cheap shot. Once more she’s trying to trash Mr. Terry’s character, giving the idea that he is this shifty used-car salesman who uses people and likes to draw attention to himself. Mr. Terry has been in jail several times for the cause, he has given up so much money to fight for the rights of the unborn. There is a reason why he can not afford his living quarters and why others assist him, and it is not malicious.]

Alright, I’m getting sick of this. Just one more. There’s other interesting stuff in the article, so if you can stomach it, go over to to the D&C; Web site and give it a read. Post a comment too if you haven’t punched your keyboard already.

Hard to understand, though, how Heaven would endorse tactics like his that cut off meaningful conversation about anything, let alone one as facticious as abortion [There it is folks, the liberal buzz word: “conversation”, oftentimes written as “dialogue.” I am sorry, Ms. Santiago, but what Mr. Terry and others are doing is in fact dialogue. They are conveying their message to the best of their ability. You just don’t want to hear it. You want the status quo, the murder of babies, to continue. Liberals do not want a dialogue at all, they want a monologue. Remember back to the Notre Dame fiasco, how all the protesters were accused of not wanting a dialogue. And what…? Heaven wouldn’t endorse an end to the murder of babies?]

This article belongs in the editorial section of the paper, if even that.

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18 Responses to “D&C Columnist Trashes Pro-Life Activist”

  1. Anonymous says:

    Her article should be in the editorial page for sure, it's all her personal opinions. Santiago must really love abortion.

  2. Rob says:

    I bet there are going to be a number of angry letters to the editor over this one.

  3. Scott/Mary says:

    Rob, Even if there are angry letters sent, the D&C; won't print them. This woman is a product of Bishop Clark and the Rochester Diocese. She is a graduate of Mercy High School.(there's a surprise!) She is an enemy of the faith and an angry young women with a forum by which she can trash the Church and she frequently does. This character assassination of Randall Terry is not surprising. Anyone who doesn't follow Santiago's agenda is fair game. Truthfully, with abortion you are either for it or against it. If you are for it, like Santiago, you are wrong! Plain and simple. There is truth and error. She is in error. No need to "dialogue" with idiots like her. It's a waste of time and breath.
    Two things about the article. "…who made a name for himself some years ago by using dead fetuses and other stunts in his fight against abortion rights" Fr. Antinarelli always says, "I've never heard any women say they are pregnant with a fetus." and
    "…others pay the rent on his Washington home." Santiago would probably be real excited if Terry was on welfare and had the government pay for his housing!

  4. Gen says:

    The Democrat and Chronicle is a mediocre publication and an unprofessional newspaper. It is not written with objectivity, but with a clear bias towards liberalism, aka "inaccuracy." At least the New York times knows what the word "grammar" means. Cuz the D&C; dont.

  5. That's why the D&C; is referred to as "Disgusting & Crummy". It is a very sub-par rag. Just read through the obits and you will see a host of typos. The other day, it was "Our Lady of Pepectual Health" and "Carmel Lite Monastery". Laughable and damnable.

    Many years ago I worked for the now defunct Times-Union (another Gannett Newpspaer) and careless reporting, sloppy editing and numerous typos would been caught. We would have had a severe dressing down by the editor.

  6. Tony says:

    At least this wasn't as bad as the Jason Cavinash (sp?) article in that one school newspaper, but it's still pretty bad. This woman's article is very opinionated and hateful. Her little stabs at Christianity and Catholicism were very unwelcome.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Terrible hateful journalism. She should be fired.

  8. Anonymous says:

    I'm glad I ended my subscription to the Democrat & Chronicle a year ago. I have never been happier.

  9. Anonymous says:

    She's as big a winner as Mark "I love Bishop Clark and his ugly Cathedral" Hare.

  10. T-Bone says:

    The same D & C who endorsed Barack Hussein Obama for president and Elliot Spitzer for governor?

  11. Anonymous says:

    Journalists…

  12. Anonymous says:

    It's no surprise that the Demagogue & Comical would print such a piece. Randall Terry does make pro-lifers look bad. Look what he did with his interview of Bishop Burke.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Honestly, I do not understand how the murder of babies is an "implied constitutional right" as Roe v Wade says it is. Where in the Constitution does it say "Murder is allowed, as long as the person being murdered is completely helpless."

  14. Mary Kay says:

    Dr. K, today is the first day the red print showed up at all and it's flashing, so it's hard to read. Did anyone have difficulty or is it just my computer?

  15. Mary Kay says:

    Huh. The text in red shows up if I have the comment window open, if I minimize the comment one, the text in red disappears. I wish I'd known that before reinventing the wheel yesterday.

  16. Dr. K says:

    Hmm, what you're describing has me baffled, Mary Kay. I really don't have an idea what could be causing that. I didn't use a tag or anything in the HTML, although I think blink has been deprecated. I'll try changing the color to blue right now. Let me know if it makes a difference.

    ~Dr. K

  17. Dr. K says:

    Ok, I changed it to what I think is blue (color blindness makes this difficult). Let me know if it still blinks.

    ~Dr. K

  18. Mary Kay says:

    Dr. K, thanks, yes now I can read all of it 🙂

    I'm baffled too, I've never seen text tied to a comment box before. I think the blinking was my moving the comment box around.

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