Sky News Owes Catholic Church Apology
I walked into my living room this morning, just as the journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was saying: “The problem is, Catholicism is making women have babies.”
I immediately rang Sky to lodge a complaint about this blatant bias, and then emailed [email protected] as follows:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I was appalled to hear the journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the All Out Politics Show on Sky this morning, remark that “…The problem is, Catholicism is making women have babies.” (then laugh.) Nasty woman.
Were I to dare to make a similar nasty remark about Islam (her religion, I believe) I would face a visit from my local police – no doubt about it. Can you imagine the outcry if I, or anyone else, were to say “the problem is, Islam is making these people into terrorists”?
There is one rule for Islam and another rule for the rest of us, notably the Catholic Church.
I will be posting this email on the Catholic Truth blog shortly, because I doubt very much if any publicity, let alone an apology, will be forthcoming from Sky, so I will do what is within my limited power to publicize the unconscionable anti-Catholic bias of Sky.
Signed
Editor
Catholic Truth
Comment:
If a comparable comment were made on air about Islam – “the peaceful religion” – to the effect that “Islam is causing people to become terrorists” all Hell would break loose, so should, in your opinion, Sky News apologise for this scandal – and should Yasmin Alibhai-Brown be dropped as a political commentator on their programme(s)?
I will, of course, seek an email address in order to send Yasmin Alibhai-Brown a link to this thread. She comes across as a tad arrogant, in my opinion, so I doubt if she will give a toss, but in the interests of fairness, I feel obliged to offer her the opportunity to exercise her right to reply. Just don’t hold your breath, not least because it’s never easy to defend the indefensible and an apology is, to say the least, highly unlikely unless it is in the category of “I’m sorry if I offended you… “ Not acceptable. We require an apology for lying about the Catholic Church and insulting every Catholic woman on the planet – that’s what we are looking for – nothing less. So, as I say, don’t hold your breath.
Comments (55)
Great email, Editor. I have also sent an email.
Good, Petrus. I hope others complain, even if they didn’t hear it first hand, anyone can quote from this blog article.
I’ve had trouble finding an email address for this woman – she’s one of those “Twits” – i.e. she’s on Twitter and Facebook, but I did eventually find an email address for her at the Independent, which I hope is still live. I wrote the following:
I have telephoned and emailed Sky News to complain about your anti-Catholic comments this morning. I have also launched a discussion on our blog which you can read here
If you wish to check out our voting poll to see just how many of us think you should be dropped by Sky from their commentator pool, check out our website home page
I have little to add except that you have some nerve claiming – as I’ve heard you claim many times – that there is anti-Islam bias, oops that’s a phobia (Islamophobia) in the UK. Some nerve.
Signed
Editor
Catholic Truth
I am also about to alert UK Media Watch as they have previously exposed this woman’s bias, although they seem to concentrate on Israel. Read more here
Editor, according to Wiki, she’s working for the London Evening Standard now.
MM,
Thank you for that. My email to the Independent was returned by Mail Delivery, so I visited the London Standard site. They do not give email addresses for their journalists so I sent the link to this thread to their news editor and Big Bad George, the editor himself, formerly the millionaire “We’re all in this austerity thing together” Chancellor of the Exchequer.
MM,
I have received an email from the Evening Standard to say she doesn’t work for them. Lucky them.
Editor,
When you see her on different programmes she goes from being a columnist with the Independent to a columnist here, there and everywhere, to being a columnist with the “i” – it looks like she can’t hold down a job!
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown cuts a pathetic figure, IMHO. She is a Muslim when it suits her and a liberal when it suits her. The two don’t usually go together.
She is so anxious to be accepted as British although she was born in Uganda and only came here in 1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasmin_Alibhai-Brown
She’ll never apologise for insulting Catholic women. We don’t count, for all her pretence about being a feminist etc.
I always groan when I see this journalist on any programme. She is so anxious to appear liberal and then the next minute she’s accusing the British public of Islamophobia, it’s just ridiculous. I don’t take her seriously at all, and neither do most people, I’d guess.
The world’s terrified of Islam which is why every terrorist report includes a breathless “reminder” that Islam is a religion of peace (and if you think differently, then you’re Islamophobic) but the Catholic Church is a safe target. We don’t kill people who criticise us.
Lily,
I wouldn’t like to give the impression that we think all Muslims would kill critics, and I know that’s not what you mean, but, for the record, we are not suggesting that.
We find it intensely unjust, however, that Catholics and Catholicism can be savaged for our defence of and adherence to the natural moral law, and nobody labels it “hate speech”.
If an MP can be suspended for using a word considered to be racist and offensive, how can this journalist get away with insulting the Catholic Church, lying about the Church, and demeaning Catholic women around the world?
Editor,
I take your point – I didn’t mean to imply that all Muslims would kill critics. Sorry if I gave that impression.
Lily,
You are right. Being Muslim and liberal don’t usually go together.
In fact, to be consistent, Alibhai-Brown should be attacking her own religion. This is an extract from the BBC page on Islam and Contraception:
There is no single attitude to contraception within Islam; however eight of the nine classic schools of Islamic law permit it.
But more conservative Islamic leaders have openly campaigned against the use of condoms or other birth control methods, thus making population planning in many countries ineffective. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/contraception.shtml
As a liberal, she should be calling out those Islamic leaders who have campaigned against contraception. Yet never a word from her on that, not that I’ve ever heard.
What Ms Alibhai-Brown needs to do is to produce all these Catholic women who are forced by the Church to have babies. That’s it. I, for one, would love to meet one! How does it work? Does the priest keep an eye on his parishioners’ fertility, dictate when and where, etc?
It was a stupid remark and she needs to apologise without delay.
I doubt you would get one from this loony left woman who has had 2 abortions ….
Wendy Walker,
Two abortions would explain her hardness of heart, IMHO. I am surprised though, shows she is more “liberal” than “Muslim” In Islam, the foetus is considered a living being after four months and abortion after that point is ruled out.
Watch this short clip to see Alibhai-Brown at her most hypocritical
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSRSypmC3OY?ecver=1&w=780&h=439%5D
She is a truly horrible person in that clip – notice what she says to Rod Liddle, saying openly that she “loathes” him. What a nasty woman.
Here is the link to the above video
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2014/06/my-run-in-with-yasmin-alibhai-brown-and-channel-4-news/
Nicky,
Many thanks for that video clip which I viewed with horror. I then found it on the Spectator page and submitted the following comment – to my amazement, although it is dated 2014, there was only one comment there, before I put in my tuppence worth, as follows…
This has just been posted on our blog – after a morning in which the insufferable Alibhai-Brown savaged the Catholic Church and insulted all Catholic women in one short sentence on Sky News. She shows her true colours in this video. What if Rod had said he “loathed” her? He’d have had the cops at his door accusing him of Islamophobia or some other crackpot non-crime such as “hate speech”. Rod came across well in this interview. The two women, emphatically did not. Signed: a non-feminist Catholic woman!
Well said, Editor. Give ’em hell.
Deacon Augustine,
If only I could find a way of contacting the benighted woman directly, I’d give her precisely that!
I’d hate to have a red-hot story to pass on to her – how does anyone find her? Numpty.
Pick up the phone and dial 666 possibly?
Deacon Augustine,
I’d say “love it” except that those are the final three digits in my own mobile number! Which led one modernist in the Diocese of Galloway to inform a member of the Catholic Truth team that “her phone number tells me all I need to know about her“.
You have to laugh!
I think Yasmin is derived from jasmine, the flower, and is totally inappropriate for the boorish Alibhai-Brown. watching her on the video with Rod Liddle, and on other TV discussions, I’m not impressed with her at all.
I’m glad she’s been called out on this attack on the Catholic Church and Catholic women – good on Catholic Truth!
I tweeted Yasmin and said how disgusted I was at her anti-Catholic and inaccurate comments. Looks like she has deleted my comments.
Petrus,
That is very interesting indeed, given that she bleats day in and day out seeking to impress us all with her commitment to democracy and free speech, yet she can’t tolerate a single criticism on her own Twitter feed. By the way, she didn’t even know the name of the programme in which she was to participate this morning, announcing that she was to appear on “Total Politics” whereas, the name of this section of Sky News – which is on air every morning at 10am – is “All Out Politics”. What a … silly… er… twit 😀 Sorry, folks, I’m bordering on the uncharitable now. Naughty me.
I took a look at her Twitter feed just to read your tweets (which I couldn’t find) and laughed a hollow laugh at some of the rubbish she posts there. For example, one of her pieces is headlined that Muslim women have changed the world. NOT – I told my computer between guffaws – in the world of fashion, that’s for sure!
Petrus,
A typical liberal – free speech for her but not for anyone else. LOL!
Petrus,
You can’t be surprised, surely, LOL! The woman is a well known bully! After reading this thread I went to check her out on YouTube because she always irritates me to death when I see her on TV. I found this clip of her on the All Out Politics show on Sky News: watch out for her bad manners and nastiness to the young man who is in the discussion along with her – she actually accuses him of bullying her at one point. Does she hear herself!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFZLWt5eNWM?ecver=1&w=1131&h=636%5D
Laura,
She’s one of those masculine feminists who are about as feminine as a bucket of cold water. Her bullying, in the video clip you posted, is typical. When I see her introduced in any discussion, e.g. Question Time, I groan – until I realise that someone like Peter Hitchens is also on the panel and will wipe the floor with her. Now, THAT is fun! Here’s a clip following on from the Channel 4 discussion with Rod Liddle where she is “extremely upset” at being criticised herself. Numpty.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w7Tcpnjsng?ecver=1&w=1131&h=636%5D
PS I fully agree with James Delingpole that she is “the most annoying woman on the planet”. To which I can only add… “any planet.”
What a nasty piece of work! It’s also a bit rich that such a comment comes from a Muslim when they genitally mutilate their females in order to make them, without pleasure, produce 7 sons for Allah. LOL!
Helen,
Ugh! That’s horrible. You are right, it’s rich that she should make such a nasty comment about Catholicism when Islam treats women less than perfectly, shall we say.
She’s a poor soul, more to be pitied than scorned. Sounds like she has serious conscience trouble and this is her way of trying to redirect the guilt. The Church’s moral teaching (God’s law) will continue long after she’s gone. Godless revolutionaries have been raging against the Church for 2000 years, yet she still sails on while they pass away. She’s just another noisy rebel gnashing her teeth with anger against God and His Holy Church. God have pity on the wretched soul.
Athanasius,
“.She’s just another noisy rebel gnashing her teeth with anger against God and His Holy Church”
Too true! I completely agree.
I know a priest who is an exorcist. He regularly deals with people who have no religious convictions, but have realised they are deeply in trouble and have been referred to him for help.
He tells me that time and time again, abortion is at the heart of their downward spiral.
Anyone surprised to hear this?
I’m not surprised that an exorcist has identified abortion as being at the heart of “deep trouble” in people with no religious convictions (although where does that leave Catholics and other “religious” people who have had abortions?)
Alibhai-Brown (came here only in 1972 but has a double-barrel name already, LOL!) is supposed to be religious and yet she has had two abortions. She seems to be a disturbed person and maybe the abortions have something to do with that, but her personality is one of a dominant person who likes to get her own way (she acts like a spoilt child in those video clips) so I think it’s her personality type that makes her so outspoken and uncaring about other people’s religious beliefs. I’ve only ever seen her getting angry about refugees, migrants, Muslims, so her comments about Catholicism don’t really surprise me. She’s a typical liberal – intolerant of anybody, any institution that doesn’t share her “values”.
She’s a typical liberal fascist, you mean: it’s my way or the highway.
Well yes. one would feel sorry for such a degenerate person. I didn’t know she had 2 abortions, how awful! I wonder what Allah thinks of that?!!!
Netflix also owes the Catholic Church an apology, on it’s latest series which dishonours The Holy Family.
Please sign petition ( don’t hold your breath waiting for an apology )
John
I have signed the petition. That programme is rank evil, demonically inspired, no question about it.
John,
It is not just Netflix. The History Channel too comes to mind, although how anyone with a functioning intellect can watch that guff for more than five minutes is beyond me.
Earlier in my life I had an experience with television which turned out to be quite providential. My television suddenly died and somehow I did not rush to have it replaced. This was in itself strange, for at that time I was a news and current affairs addict.
For about five years I watched no television. Then suddenly I was gifted one, the same one which I have today. Turning it on was a revelation. The years of fasting had somehow heightened my critical faculties in its regard, and it was as if there was some kind of wall between me and TV. This feeling persists to this day, and I am grateful for it. Yes, I do watch the news, but rarely right to the end. I keep television at arms length which is probably still too close.
One of the most salutary experiences I had with my new tv was stumbling on MTV. Rarely have I had the perception that I was standing in the face of evil, and evil directed at the young. And yet most parents would consider this harmless entertainment.
But parents have become very desensitised to evil. I was aghast at accounts of my nieces ‘and nephews’ sojourns at T in the Park, which seems now to viewed by both parents and their offspring in Scotland as an established rite of passage. It seems to me, oldish foggey that I am, that the heady mixture of substance abuse, the idolatrous homage which young people pay to rock bands spouting the cult of self, and promiscuity are hardly condusive to health and happiness, spiritual or otherwise.
But my siblings think differently. They would condemn, in theory, all of the ills which I listed above, but in practice … well, you know how it is, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Prognosticum,
That is very interesting indeed about your 5 years without television. I had a similar experience when, for reasons with which I won’t bore you all, I did not watch TV for six years.
When I eventually switched on again, I was stunned. But what stunned me more than the content of the programmes, especially films and dramas, was the way those around me had become de-sensitised. Nothing shocked them.
Indeed, one friend responded to one of my observations about a particular programme with “Oh, well, I’m un-shockable.” To which I replied that I will NEVER be un-shockable – that I planned to keep my shock-sensor well oiled and would not allow myself to become de-sensitised or “un-shockable”.
Seeing her eyebrows raise, I added that I will certainly, no doubt, soon be un-surprised because, even at that point, I was realising that things were so bad that I would soon stop putting my hand over my mouth and dashing for the phone to ring the TV companies, but never, NEVER would I allow myself to stop being shocked at the evil, the filth, the sheer decadence that too often passes for “entertainment” and now, of course, I need to add that I will never allow myself to become de-sensitised to the immoral laws such as those legalising abortion and LGBT “rights”, with their spin-offs – such as the State taking on the role of the parent to those children who make it through the womb, and the latest LGBT madness in the form of transgenderism: never
So, I fully understand your situation – it is more common than, perhaps, you think. I’m stunned when I hear friends taking the ever so “reasonable” approach to the LGBT “community” (“Well… it’s their choice…”)
In this centenary of Fatima year, it’s just astonishing to think that Sr Lucia spoke of the world and the Church taking a “diabolical disorientation” (and the same foretold, again by Our Lady speaking of the 20th century, in different words, way back in the 17th century at Quito) and now we are living through exactly that foretold disorientation. With the word “orientation” – ironically – used by all and sundry to justify the prevailing determination to legitimise and promote what was, not so long ago, a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment – homosexual activity. Disorientation? You betcha!
Editor,
I will ever consider my tv-less years to have been nothing short of a blessing.
Television, by its very nature, deforms reality. It is false god by another name. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Luddite. But I do think that the will to subdue the whore most of us have enthroned in our livingrooms is an obligatory part of our witness to Christ today.
Prognosticum,
I, too, regard my TV-less years as a blessing. I think taking a break from the Brainwashing Broadcast Media (BBM, sister to the BBC!) makes us more clear-headed, more clear-thinking.
Of course there are good things on TV as well – it’s not all bad. However, a break from it helps discernment, no question about it. And this, as you indicate, enables us to use our Confirmation graces to speak out to warn others, as part of our prophetic Catholic vocation, that the content of TV programmes, including the very obviously biased news programmes, is, or can be, a danger to souls.
Prognosticum
I see your point but some elderly people only have the tv for company. It’s the watching of too much tv, especially for the easily led, that’s bad. Those who watch tv all the time worship before what one priest once called “the devil’s tabernacle”. Everything in moderation and with discernment.
I’ve now received an acknowledgment to my email, from Sky Viewer Relations:
Thank you for your email which is receiving our attention and a reply will be forwarded to you shortly.
Kind Regards
Joan
Sky Viewer Relations
Editor
You can now expect a follow up email telling you how it was all within the guidelines of freedom of expression. In other words, the usual lies and deceit. We are living through a unique God-hating era of history that will one day be classified as the most shameful hour of humanity. God will restore order and decency to the world, probably by means of a terrifying manifestation of His divine displeasure. I’d love to be wrong about the means but I don’t see society returning to moral goodness and innocence willingly. The majority are now hedonistic pagans not remotely interested in anything other than their own comfort and pleasure.
I had no idea that the woman in question had 2 abortions. There’s the reason for her bitterness against God and His Church. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is the classic example of a morally troubled conscience. There are too many such wretched individuals around today, the price of independence from God.
Athanasius,
Your post reminds me of a conversation I had recently with a hospital doctor, a specialist as well as a practising Catholic, who has just retired.
He was telling me of his conviction that the number of ‘troubled souls’ among his patients rose very significantly throughout his career. He was particularly troubled by what he saw as a very sharp increase in the propensity to lie, even when doing so could have very serious consequences.
A lot of what we are saying here points to a society which is in decline, maybe even of the terminal variety. There is less and less which unites us while there is more and more which divides us. But we do not rest in our relentless construction of our new Tower of Babel which is effectively a prison.
Athanasius,
Yes, I’ll get the usual fob-off, little to no doubt about that. And there’s no point in lodging a complaint with the TV supposed watchdog Ofcom or whatever it’s called. They’re wimps and part of the whole “progressive liberal” establishment thingy.
You know every time I hear politicians and their daft commentators (like Yasmin Whatshername) speaking of the joys of being in a “progressive” society, I think of cancer. That’s where I recall the word being most commonly used in my youth – someone had cancer and it was “progressive”.
Editor,
The same with “free” and “radical”!
Yasmin was on Sky again last night, again as newspaper reviewer. I actually felt sorry for her, as she said, at every opportunity, how “we” are this and “we” are that, to drive home her “Britishness”. It came across as a bit sad, pathetic, really, to anyone who knows that she only arrived here a few short years ago in 1972.
It brought to my mind our discussion, some time ago, on St Thomas Aquinas on the history of immigration. One interesting fact in that article is that it took a lot longer than 45 years before they were allowed to engage in the affairs of their new homeland. Yet, Yasmin is on TV giving us her opinion on national affairs, on a regular basis.
Perhaps my imagination, but she seemed a tad more subdued than usual, and at one point complained to her fellow reviewer about the online abuse (not sure she used that word) she gets, that he ought to go with her to her computer to see it, and I couldn’t help thinking that she meant us – these liberal types (i.e. intolerant “liberals”) think any criticism of them is “abuse” and “threatening”, while allowing themselves the widest possible scope for attacking others.
Sorry, Yasmin, if you think this is “abuse” – it’s not; we are exercising our right to reply to your disgraceful and unfounded attack on the Catholic Church because your fellow travellers in the “liberal” establishment won’t give us that right through their media outlets which published your falsehood in the first place. Get it, now?
I think St Thomas Aquinas showed great common sense on immigration. UK politicians would benefit from reading that article on the subject.
The repeated appearances of this deceitful woman only serves to highlight that the media has been well and truly enlisted to attack the Catholic Church at every opportunity. I’ve noticed some are puzzled that liberals and Muslims indeed make strange bedfellows, but I believe the operative principle there is “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” In fact, the cooperation of these two camps demonstrates the evil and emptiness of both ideologies, but I suspect that sincere Muslims would have no more to do with liberalism that would we.
Here in America, we’ve apparently been given a respite from attacks on the Church, because the media is too busy with their latest enemy, President Trump (actually, the mainstream Church has surrendered to the same agenda as the media, thanks to Pope Francis). Meanwhile, I’ve been without a TV for almost 10 years, and I miss it about as much as I miss haggis….
RCA Victor,
So, you miss TV as much as you miss haggis… OUCH!
Anyway, my fob off response from Sky has been received (arrived on the 18th actually):
Dear [Editor],
Thank you for your email to Sky and please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.
Please be assured that your comments raised in your email have been noted and passed to Sky News Editorial team for their information.
Thank you once again, for contacting us. We always welcome viewers comments and thanks for sharing your opinion with us.
Kind Regards
Joan
Viewer Relations
http://www.sky.com/mysky
We have, it seems, a bit to go yet before any apology is issued. The media really is a joke, one thinks. Does one agree with one, RCA Victor, or is one tending towards disagreement with one? One can’t imagine it, since one has noted that one considers President Trump to have been a victim of one’s media over there in the USA… 😀
Well done, Editor! your letter is perfect.
I was stunned at this story, which I read earlier on today:
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/sunday-times-sacks-irish-columnist-after-anti-semitism-row-1-8079627
It seems you can say anything you like about Catholicism but dare say anything about Judaism and you will be sacked on the spot!
Petrus
Absolutely right! And the same goes for Islam. The intent is clear, wipe Christ and the Christian religion off the face of the earth. That’s how we know Lucifer is at work.
Congratulations on an intelligent blog with intelligent followers. I’m Jason O’Connell. I write the blog Catholic Mindfulness as a hobby. It is nowhere near this quality. Nice work. Thank you for what you do.
Jason,
Thank you for your very kind words about this blog and its inmates! Unaccustomed as we are to such charity, you would have earned our employee of the month award if we had one 😀 but, at the very least, you deserve an…
http://pawprint.cornell.edu/sites/all/themes/pawprint_theme/media/styles/largeimage_575px/public/articles/images/High%205%20poster.Ithaca.short_.jpg
I’m looking forward to perusing your blog as soon as possible. I took a quick look just now and I can’t see anything wrong with the quality. I look forward to checking out your topics – and please feel free to import anything from this blog, if you feel inclined to do so, any time…
God bless.
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