MSM/DNC, the Catholic Church, Garet Garrett, Joe Sobran and the hagfish

Every so often I come across something I wish I had written myself. I just discovered Joe Sobran's January newsletter, in which he discusses the Chinese Communist practice of creating a fake Catholic "front" church for the sake of hiding the Chinese government's persecution of the real Catholic church:

The Communist Government of China takes a keen
interest in religion, so much so that it has created the
Patriotic Catholic Church -- a puppet church faithful to
itself, while the Catholic Church that is faithful to
Rome is persecuted and has been forced to go underground.
Few American Catholics -- indeed, few Americans at all
-- are aware of this, for the American media have no
interest in it. The trials of Christians abroad have
always ranked low among their human-rights concerns.

In fact the American media have, in their way,
emulated the Chinese regime. They have designated their
own Catholic "spokesmen," who, like the Patriotic
Catholic Church, withhold their loyalty from Rome and,
more to the point, reject official Catholic teaching,
especially on matters touching the sexual revolution.
Foremost among these is Andrew Sullivan, the
homosexual activist and apostle of "gay marriage."
Otherwise moderately conservative, Sullivan shows up
everywhere, from TIME to THE NEW REPUBLIC to the op-ed
pages of the major dailies. He has written that he no
longer attends mass, so heartbroken is he by the Church's
failure to accommodate the demands of the "gay
community," or what might be called Organized Sodomy.
When not lugubrious, Sullivan can be charming and
perceptive.

Not far behind Sullivan is the scholarly Garry
Wills, who has written several books (and many
articles) attacking the papacy and denying various
Catholic doctrines, including Transubstantiation, the
Immaculate Conception, and, lately, the Virgin Birth. He
nonetheless insists that he believes the Apostles' Creed.
He has been especially passionate in defending
contraception and abortion. He is easily the finest
writer on this list of whom I've written before.

Though Mario Cuomo has faded lately, the former
governor of New York was a pioneer among
media-anointed "thoughtful" Catholics. He enjoyed his
great blaze of glory in the early 1980s; he popularized
the idea (since adopted by many Catholic politicians,
most recently John Kerry) that a Catholic politician may
not, and should not, "impose his faith" by supporting
restrictions on abortion.

Andrew Greeley was the first priest to join the
roster of media Catholic critics of the Church, combining
advocacy of contraception with ridicule of the bishops
and Church traditions. He is also known for his
best-selling sex novels.

Richard McBrien, liberal Notre Dame theologian, is
another priest who is frequently summoned by the media to
explain why the Church is wrong and reactionary.

Anna Quindlen, a best-selling novelist, for many
years served the NEW YORK TIMES as a columnist
specializing in the defamation of the Church, a role for
which her sole qualification was apparently her nominal
membership therein -- certainly no particular knowledge
or insight. She has since moved to NEWSWEEK. Naturally
she is consistently feminist, pro-abortion, and so on.

Maureen Dowd moved into the TIMES's Catholic woman
slot when Miss Quindlen left. Though Miss Dowd is much
wittier and more readable than her predecessor, her role
is much the same: to sneer at the Church and orthodox
Catholics like Pat Buchanan and Mel Gibson. She has
called the Stations of the Cross "a 12-step program."

None of these people could be confused with Bishop
Sheen. None has ever been known to defend the Church
against the world. None has given the media reason to
demand a refund of their 30 pieces of silver.

Not that apostate and disaffected Catholics should
be shut out. But why should they have the field to
themselves? Isn't there room in the media for an
occasional defender of the Faith?

emphasis added

The MSM/DNC tactic of using apostate Catholics as spokesmen for its anti-Christian bias constitutes a combination of various categories from the bias list, including numbers 3, 9 and 12. Check them out - I will wait.

Perhaps a new category should be created to describe just this tactic. Garet Garrett compared this tactic to the "hagfish":

So it was that a revolution took place within the form. Like the hagfish, the New Deal entered the old form and devoured its meaning from within. The revolutionaries were inside; the defenders were outside.

The MSM/DNC possesses great expertise at advocating its positions while pretending to take the form of its own adversaries. That MSM/DNC could masquerade as both a political party and a group of so called journalists is testament to MSM/DNC's hagfish skills. The first example that comes to mind (aside from Sobran's example) is the MSM/DNC's tactic of promoting leftist bloggers whenever it talks about the blogosphere.

MSM/DNC cannot destroy Christianity, the blogosphere, the Republican Party, America or any other item on its "enemies list" with a direct assault. That would be too obvious. MSM/DNC must, instead, assume the form of its enemies and devour them from within.