CUT News Issue 3 - Feb - March 2004

CUT NEWS

                                                                  Catholics Unplug your Televisions                                            

Issue 3   -   February/March 2004

Saint Elizabeth Seton

In the mid 1800s she had a vision she did not understand and saw a black box in every American home, through which the devil would enter.

Is the BBC so full of its own virtue that it has lost the plot?

THE HUTTON REPORT

CUT does not wish to make any comment on the wider issues involved for we have supporters of many views and political persuasions. However, we are in general agreement with the Hutton report and the statement that the BBC has a ‘defective editorial system.’

    We have been exasperated by the way the BBC has treated the Catholic Church in past few years. These attacks have gone far beyond the attack on the government. Perhaps the BBC should apologise to the Catholic Church and practising Catholics for the injury caused to us by so many of their programmes. We only ask for fair and balanced programmes but as one CUT supporter pointed out they always give the last word to the quasi liberal or anti-Catholic.

    Now there is a Catholic, Mark Byford, installed, as Acting Director General perhaps there will be a greater degree of sensitivity directed towards Catholics. We were impressed by his total acceptance of judge’s verdict; perhaps we now have a gentleman in charge.

    Greg Dyke on the other hand seemed to instigate a tabloid form of journalism more reminiscent of the Sun newspaper than the BBC. There is an old saying ‘when the fish begins to smell the rot starts at the head.’

IS THE BBC PROMOTING THE CULTURE OF DEATH?

If anyone needs evidence of how anti-Catholic moral teaching the BBC has become you need go no further than the ‘Panorama’ programme ‘Sex and the Holy See’. For the programme has prompted Chris Smith MEP to try and persuade Catholics to turn against the teachings of Church. His and ‘Panorama’s’ views fly in the face of the actual evidence. That it is the mainly Catholic countries that have the lowest rate of AIDS of all the Christian countries in Africa and the third world. Abstinence, self-control and no sex outside of marriage are the only ways of controlling AIDS not the condom culture. Some BBC presenters and MEPs seem to have condoms on the brain. Perhaps they have condoms over their brains? However as the things are only 85% effective its not surprising that unhealthy statements escape.

                Should Catholics need further persuasion to stop funding the BBC visit the sexwise web-site which they provide in partnership with International Planed Parenthood Federation. Fr Marsden of the Catholic Times on 1^st February wrote they are the ‘World’s biggest abortion and contraception provider, and partner in Chinese forced abortions.’ Read their Strategic Plan, they state that in countries where abortion is illegal, they will campaign to remove restrictions against abortions.’

We recommend that Catholics give up the TV or just receive EWTN

Even though we are asking Catholics get involved in the Charter Review we strongly urge them to give up the TV and not fund the BBC. Paying the licence fee has meant we are funding attacks on the Catholic Church and her stand on moral issues. If a household just receives EWTN no licence is required for it is broadcast from outside the UK. (Note: The government changed this law so that all live TV  needs a licence in April 2004)

A LETTER FROM A PRIEST WHO GOT RID OF HIS TV

My studies with the Open University required radio and television programmes, which I acknowledge were very well produced. Having got my degree I had a TV set, some years old but in good condition, seeing that it had not had a lot of use. I thought the best thing to do would be to give it away. Several people had mentioned to me that they were upset at many of the programmes on TV – the language, sex and violence etc. Complaints to the BBC and/or ITV got nowhere. I did not say so, but I wondered why they bothered to watch. At the same time seeing that they paid a licence fee they had a right to complain.

Before giving away my TV it seemed wise to check on what many had said to me. First I made a careful study of all the programmes as advertised for that week. There were those, which sounded innocuous enough or even entertaining. Some I rejected immediately for containing nudity. Others I watched for a brief time and rejected those also. Some took a little while longer before they got around to the portrayal of excessive violence and foul language or misuse of God’s great gift of sex. Almost every programme in the evenings confirmed what those people had said.

Switching channels did not bring any relief. They all showed deceptive distortions of the truth. Greed and avarice were presented as virtues. Violence was excessive, gratuitous and relentless. Every form of sordid lust was portrayed as honest love. And all of this was bespattered with distasteful loathsome language. I could say a lot more about all these things, but there was one thing, which disturbed me more than all these put together – blasphemy.

“…there was one thing, which disturbed me more than all these put together – blasphemy.”

Blasphemy is the misuse of the holy name of Jesus Christ. That name which is above all names and at the sound of which, all should bow in reverence. The Catechism of the Church reminds us that blasphemy is directly opposed to the second commandment. It also says that the prohibition of blasphemy extends to language against Christ’s Church, the saints, and sacred things. Where does the BBC stand in that regard?

“I must not pay for those programmes to be made or broadcast.”

Having got that far in testing what was on TV it seemed wise to stop. I was appalled to think that some of that which I had paid for in a licence had been used to produce programmes or to buy them ready made which contained such blasphemy. Switching off was not sufficient. I must not pay for those programmes to be made or broadcast.

“I took it (the TV) outside and broke it into pieces and immediately took the remainstoan official rubbish dump as being the appropriate place for them.”

I did not give away the TV set. I took it outside and broke it into pieces and immediately took the remains to an official rubbish dump as being the appropriate place for them. I dropped the pieces into a large container which was already half full of other trash.  The plastic back of the TV was kept as it was just the right size to cover a grid and thus helped to keep dirt out of the house instead of bringing it in. When I received a rebate for the TV licence I gave the money to a Catholic charity.

I am not able to make a direct or detailed comment about the recent attacks on the Church. I have not seen any of them! But from what I hear it sounds as though the BBC in attempting to improve its ratings has only succeeded in making its programmes more rank. If this trend continues the BBC will wind up with the type of audience it deserves.

The Decree issued by Vatican II on the means of social communication, and Pastoral Instructions from the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, and also many statements by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, have all set high standards both for those who work in the mass media and those who are the recipients of that work. For example, ‘The description or the representation of moral evil can lead to a deeper knowledge and analysis of mankind and to a manifestation of that which is true and good in all their splendour.’ In other words virtues should be shown as virtues and vices as vices. Unfortunately, many in the mass media demean their own profession, and to them can be applied the words of Isaiah: ‘Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness.’

‘Love your enemies, and pray for those who insult you,’ said Jesus. As an expression of the love we have for those who work in the mass media we should pray that they use their God-given talents in such a worthy and honourable manner so as not to be ashamed on the day they hear the voice and see the face of Jesus Christ.  - From  Fr P. R

CUT News Issue 2 (No 2)

A REVIEW OF THE ANTI-CATHOLIC BROADCAST YEAR

The following is a short study on the past year with special emphasis on material relating to the Catholic Church. This study was mainly produced in the first six months of the year. I decided to make notes whenever programmes mentioned the Church for good or bad. The programmes mentioned are only those, which I have personally seen or heard about. Nevertheless the proportion of detrimental comment to good is massive.

BBC 1 The Virgin Mary –Sunday 22^nd December 2002

Whilst watching this programme I came to realise just how clever the BBC are in using their skills to undermine Church teaching. Whilst giving the appearance of a balanced and fair programme the general thrust was of unorthodoxy. No theologian or historian is shown to have the usual view as per the Bible or tradition. The Catholic view is hardly taken into account, which is surprising considering how much we venerate Our Lady. No scholarly backup given to Jesus as God.

Attack on traditional views of Our Lady

Channel 5 Inquisition –late December 2002

This was a nasty and provocative little play. John Guilgood played a Cardinal. It portrayed the Cardinal and one of his monks as mean cold fanatical bigots. It also suggests that the Catholic Church is in league with the devil.

Attack on the Catholic Church in history

BBC or ITV Midnight Mass – 2002

There was no Catholic midnight mass broadcast on TV.

No Catholic midnight Mass for the third year in a row on TV.  There was one only on the radio.

BBC Radio 5 live – 10^th January 2003 3pm

Two dissident Catholics interviewed, one an ex-monk the other who once trained for the priesthood. The main thrust of this feature was that celibacy is wrong with words like ‘repressed sexuality’ being used. No normal Catholic views given

Attack on the Catholic teaching of priestly celibacy.

BBC admits anti-Catholic bias – The Today programme – and offers a rare apology.

Not only did they admit to anti-Catholic bias but issued an apology to Catholic journalist Clifford Longley (but not Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor as they should have). The following is reprinted from the Telegraph Newspaper:

In the course of its campaign, Today interviewed Mr Longley as a defender of the cardinal. Mr Longley complained that his best argument was cut, while his opponent was permitted to make unfair allegations. The BBC’s head of complaints admitted that “the overall impression” given was “a degree of bias”. The response of most viewers and listeners to such partiality ranges from indignation to cynicism. But they do not complain. If more people followed Mr Longley’s example, the BBC might think twice.

The campaign, which is referred to is the attempt by Today and Newsnight to make Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor resign because of cover up allegations over child abuse. Although no evidence was ever found it was for the secular media a good chance to bring as much bad publicity as possible. It is interesting to note that even though the Church of England has had similar problems there has been nothing like the same kind of animosity towards them!

Attack on the moral authority of the Catholic Church

BBC Radio 4 - Pick of the week 9^th March 9^th 6.20pm

The presenter said that Evelyn Waugh joined a ‘reactionary religion’ the Catholic Church.

Unfair to give such a name to the Catholic Church.

Channel 4 – Good Friday – a programme on Elizabeth 1st

Very biased against Catholic Mary. The Old myth about Good Queen Bess and Bloody Mary continues.

Biased and Anti-Catholic view of history

BBC TV Channel 4 – A profile on Cardinal Ratzinger 7^th May 2003

This programme is a typical example of BBC’s self-proclaimed but specious assertion to even-handedness. It is quite easy if you look at the structure to see how they do it for example the presenter interviewed an Oxford Catholic

Theology tutor who said that there is a great revival in the Southern Europe it’s the North that’s the Sick Man of Europe and that there is no problem in the Third World. The presenter contradicted him completely after the interview by saying the Church is ‘Haemorrhaging’ in the Third World.  The BBC presents their views as facts when there is no one to contradict them. This shallow duplicity is almost standard screenplay for the modern BBC documentary when dealing with the Catholic Church.

                The programme seemed to be really about Hans Kung and his views about the Church and Cardinal Ratzinger. This programme tried to give the impression that it was a fair and learned documentary on the Cardinal. However its main aim was to undermined and misinform. The producer and presenter by the comments and summing up after every interview could clearly be seen to be anti-Catholic moral teaching.

This programme tried to undermine the Church on: Contraception, celibacy, woman priests, and Catholic moral teaching.

BBC TV Channel 4 – The Celibacy Debate, 7^th May 2003

This programme followed hard on the heels of the profile on Cardinal Ratzinger. The panel balance was not achieved therefore to call this a debate was ambitious.

This programme tried to undermine traditional priestly celibacy.

There were many other incidences of anti-Catholic bias in the first six months of the year mainly by the BBC but there is not enough room to print them all here. However in the name of fairness I must report that the BBC did broadcast Urbi et Orbi from St Peters square at Easter and a Mass from Portsmouth Cathedral. However these did not involve comments on the Catholic faith and morels.

                When the BBC and the other TV channels have been accused of anti-Catholic bias they have always say that they do not understand what we are talking about and that no such bias exists. However what they actually do is attack Catholic moral teaching and our faith is mostly ignored (apart from BBC 1’s The Virgin Mary). From the above survey it is clear that they try and undermine Catholic teaching on: Priestly celibacy, contraception, woman priests, homosexuality and Catholic moral teaching generally. Why is the BBC against Catholic moral teaching? CUT believes the reasons are quite clear; the BBC is for want of a better phrase ‘politically correct’ and are in favour of woman priests, contraception and homosexually they are also pro choice (abortion). It is also quite clear from the programmes mentioned that they are against celibacy and Catholic moral teaching in general.

                After the survey finished (due to the author unplugging his TV and not watching anymore broadcast television). There was a plethora of letters and articles in the Catholic press regarding continued anti-Catholic bias such as Panorama’s Sex and the Vatican, in which, they actually had the temerity to blame the African AIDS crises on Catholic moral teaching. Kenyon Confronts which raked over old and well aired allegations of Child abuse broadcast on prime time BBC TV on the eve of the Popes jubilee celebrations. There were several other incidents of media bigotry towards Catholic moral teaching. Again in the name fairness and balance that CUT hopes the BBC will imitate we report that there was one or two incidence of fairness reported regarding the panel on the broadcast of the Mass from St Peters square of the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. However after that there was a return to attacks on Catholic moral teaching mainly on BBC radio.

BBC Radio 5 live - 24^th August BBC subjective with the news

The BBC went to great lengths to report on the death of a Catholic priest in America who was a paedophile whilst totally ignoring the case of the choirmaster at St Paul’s. This item came from the Daily Telegraph.

Are the BBC biased in favour of the Church of England? Should the BBC  look at what happening there? Perhaps they need to look at themselves as well, before they point the finger? Cf Matt 7:3-5, Lk :41-42.

Although this month’s newsletter deals mainly with anti-Catholic bias we feel we must mention a truly awful programme called Beijing Swings.

Channel 4 Beijing Swings – Baby cooked and eaten on TV!

Channel 4 ever trying to carve a niche in depravity below its broadcasting competitors produced a programme that must seriously worry any decent thinking person. Beijing Swings involved the cooking and eating of a dead baby by a performance artist. Is this the result of the re-emergence of paganism and atheism, which in turn is the result of decades of anti-Church propaganda from the media? Beijing Swings shows how desensitised the viewing public have become. Muslims, Catholics and other decent people where horrified by this.

                The Catholic Times of 23^rd January 2003 stated:

Jess Search a Channel 4 editor informed Lord Alton that "this film had a very serious editorial purpose to gain greater understanding of a new generation of Chinese young people…  The BBC and Channel 4 refused to show a pro-life election broadcast saying that it offended against taste and decency!

How right the Holy Father is when he calls this society  "The Culture of Death".

CUT News issue 2 (No 1)

CUT NEWS

Catholics Unplug your Televisions

Jesus said:

“…a man sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat... Matt 13:24-25

Is the BBC a monopoly funded by a compulsory tax?

The BBC may argue that it is not a monopoly because there are other independent TV channels. However all the other channels must fight for their revenue from advertising or subscription. Only the BBC is allowed funds from the compulsory licence fee. Not only that but if you were to watch one of the independent channels without paying a licence fee you risk a heavy fine or being put in prison. Surely this is exceptionally unjust and puts the BBC in a position of absolute power and it is said that absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

                Time to abolish this draconian fee or distribute it fairly, and let the BBC have the benefit of the market place as well as the other channels. It is not only the ever burgeoning number of BBC TV and Radio channels that the licence fee must carry but it is obvious that they are relying on quantity and not quality, they are going for the sensational story line to paper over the cracks in the quality.  

                They have in fact become the main protagonist of the Culture of Death (as a Sister from Cardinal Winnings pro-Life initiative told CUT). They actually refused the Pro-Life Alliance their election broadcast, so much for their belief in democracy Should the monopolies commission not investigate them?

                They seem to be acting like a communist state of old with Political Correctness being their manifesto.

                You may think that comparing the BBC output against the Catholic Church and the totalitarian regimes anti-Catholic propaganda of the 30’s or of the former ‘Iron Curtain’ countries a little far fetched, there are similarities for historian Dr Michael Burleigh in the excellent book the ‘The Third Reich – A New History writes:

“The central obsession was … political Catholicism, to which Schwarze Korps devoted interminable analyses, together with attacks on senior clergy and a stream of anti-clerical smut severally designed to demolish the moral authority of the Catholic Church. (p189, 2000 Pan).

The parallels are there for everyone to see, for totalitarianism substitute, Liberal Political Correctness of the BBC; even raking over old scandals in exactly the same way. ‘Liberal’ seems to be a misnomer for anyone who has read the views of   Poly Toynbee or heard the Today programme will know.

The BBC requested to stop broadcasting into Ireland

Irish Catholics to petition BBC to stop their unwelcome broadcasts.

From Dublin to Donegal, Irish supporters of CUT have been very active in their campaign to stop BBC broadcasts into Ireland. They have been collecting signatures in churches, hospitals and among the general public. Their objective is to let the BBC know how unwelcome the stray broadcasts into Ireland are.

                Whilst the BBC may argue that these broadcast are not meant for the Irish and they can always turn the TV off, it is still watched and how many innocent Irish children have had their childhood stolen from them by an evening in front British soaps with their adulterous storylines. A sad note: every Soap now has had its own pro-homosexual or Lesbian storyline.

                We wish to let our Irish friends know that your British colleagues in CUT are with you in prayers and wish God speed to all your efforts.

One would expect that of all the countries in these islands, RTE the television company of the Irish Republic would give Catholicism a fair hearing. Not only that but they have had a good reputation as a family channel. Not any longer it would seem for the influence of the BBC has ruined this once wonderful channel. In another sad development TV3 a fairly new independent channel is showing the dissolute ‘Sex in the City’

Our members from Dublin wrote

“Forget about RTE for Christian witness.  It's trying to "out-liberal" the BBC with the foul language in its newest sitcoms and rabid anti-catholic calumnies in its documentaries.  We know longer expect panel-balance on RTE or radio.  Hence we did not renew our TV license…As for TV3 Sex in the City is even disturbing adults let alone children.”

CUT News Issue 1 Nov 2003

To celebrate CUT’s 10^th Anniversary we are posting some of our earliest newsletters - here’s the very first

CUT NEWS

Catholics Unplug your Televisions

Issue 1 - November 2003

OUR AIMS

For many years now Catholics have wondered what’s happened to the respectability of the BBC and the other channels. It has been quite clear that the standards of broadcast morality have been slipping steadily. From the first expletives being issued in the sixties and seventies. To the sex and violence of the nineties and the new millennium.  There has been a steady demoralisation and desensitising of the viewer.

There is also a clear Anti-Catholic bias. The BBC and other channels maintain that this is not the case. However Catholics are concerned and CUT believes there is a genuine issue here, it first really came to light during Christmas 1999 when every country throughout the Christian world broadcast from St Peters in Rome except the British. Even Finland with only 6,000 Catholics took the Mass live. Yet on British TV we had a live Anglican service on both the BBC and on ITV. It has continued thus ever since with the occasional sop thrown to the Catholics.

Do not be taken in by the broadcast by the BBC from St Peters of the Beatification of Mother Theresa, not to have broadcast it would have been just too blatant. There were enough instances of bias during the preceding week in which they reveal their true colours.

Our aims are that the BBC and other TV stations take their responsibility seriously. That the BBC in particularly who are there not only to entertain us but are leaders in broadcast standards. If the BBC is to be known as Public Service Broadcasters they must act with fairness and moral sensitivity to its viewers. To make programmes that undermine the teachings of Jesus, with licence fee funds paid by Catholics and other Christians is totally unacceptable. If they wish to continue thus, then the licence fee should be abolished and a pay to view system installed. Therefore those who find this kind of programme acceptable, can pay for it and view it, Catholics and other Christians can avoid it. Our conscience will no longer be troubled that we are funding sin.

Many thanks to Robert Doyle of the Catholic Times and to Catholic World News for reporting on our efforts, the following article is from CWM.com London, Oct. 20:
British Catholics plan BBC boycott

Some of Britain's Catholics are registering their protests against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) by switching off their televisions, after the Bishops of England and Wales charged the network with anti-Catholic bias. The BBC has come under fire from Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham for its planned cartoon, Popetown, and for documentaries, which blame the Catholic Church for the spread of Aids and for covering up cases of child abuse by priests.             Now a new pressure group, Catholics Unplug Your Television (CUT) is urging the faithful to switch off the sets and to stop paying their TV licences. The group's founder, Stefano Mazzeo, told the Catholic Times that every time Catholicism is mentioned on the BBC it is followed by "a detrimental comment". "Eventually it got too much," he said. "I unplugged my television and wrote to them and said I would no longer pay my licence fee.”

                In Britain, every household pays a TV license of more than £120, which directly funds the BBC. Even householders who only watch commercial TV stations must pay the license or risk a fine or even imprisonment.

Mazzeo told the Catholic Times that "the whole ethos of broadcast television is dangerous, but the BBC is the biggest problem because you cannot pick and choose what you see without paying the license fee. He cited several recent attacks on Catholicism in several BBC programs, which were "offensive and anti-Catholic". Mazzeo said that, while he doesn't yet have accurate figures, thousands of people have now told the BBC they will no longer be paying the license fee, regardless of the consequences.

NOVEMBER 5^th BBC RADIO 5 LIVE 4.25 PM –The Catholic Church to blame for the African AIDS Crisis!

                Just when you thought it might be safe to turn on the Radio and listen to some sports reports, what do you get but a dry old presenter interviewing a priest working in Africa who is being used as a guinea pig for an anti HIV drug. Very good you might think until you realise where the questioning is going and this priest is really a dissident. The presenter then goes on the blame the Church’s teaching on condoms for the crisis.

Talk about exasperating bias, when it is really the Western media and the BBC who are to blame with the promotion of life-stiles that lead to fornication and adultery the real causes of HIV and AIDS. The priest of course obliges the BBC and has a dig at the Bishops who promote abstinence and chastity instead of the use of condoms. Where is the other side of the argument, of course no credence is given to it. CUT dares the BBC to come up with one programme that gives the church’s teaching in a logical and reasoned way without brow beating us.

Auntie Beeb becomes the Wicked Stepmother

                As the Christmas season draws near one wonders what it will be like without a TV. More traditional perhaps more spiritual with more time for family and friends and more time for Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas.

                What of Auntie BBC at the festive season, more sex and violence, more extraordinary, implausible, angry plots on East Enders? Perhaps even the first Christmas Lesbian Kiss? Yuck!

                Perhaps even a farce or a pantomime, no that’s their corporate philosophy. Or perhaps they will wake up and realise they are Killing the Goose that laid the Golden Egg.



What to do if you unplug your TV

If you have unplugged your TV or thrown it out, let them know. If you are you are using your TV to play videos only, detune it. Or have your TV set and video adapted that it cannot receive broadcast television. If you have your TV set adapted have it done professionally by a reputable technician, TV repair shops should be able to do this service. 

If you only watch EWTN you may not need to pay the licence fee anyway as this station is from the USA. Check with TV licensing:

TV Licensing

Bristol

The BBC loses its journalistic integrity and our respect.

From an Oxford CUT supporter.

In today's program at around 8:15: How typical of the BBC's "high journalistic standards" to give the last word on Mother Theresa to the scurrilous and sensation-seeking Christopher Hitchens, a man who chooses to make a living from destroying the reputation of good people.

                And what a last word - the indefensible assertion that nothing that is commonly believed about her is true. John Hmphries' closing remarks as good as ratify his sweeping statements. This is just one more of the daily instances which confirm the growing certainty in a large number of listeners that the corporation is doing little or nothing to curb the ideological bias of its journalists, and in so doing is gravely undermining its very raison d'etre as an objective conveyor of news.

Is the BBC to blame for the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa?

 

There have been many instances where BBC journalists point the finger at the Catholic Church for tragic the spread of HIV in Africa. But could the real culprit be the BBC and western broadcast media? For if you turn on the TV any night of the week you will find either adultery, fornication and homosexuality made to look benign. As one person who contacted CUT remarked when you watch a TV programme the hero and heroin end up in bed with marriage not even as issue.

                Surly it is these practices that are shown to be such fun by the TV programme makers, which are the real cause of the spread of AIDS not the Catholic Church’s teaching on chastity and abstinence.

                Programmes like Sex and the Vatican are made to try

Happy Birthday CUT

CUT’s tenth anniversary

CUT was formed ten years ago, in late September 2003. I can’t remember the actual date but it was after an Irish friend came to visit me when I was living in the uplands of mid Wales. We discussed the secular media as I had just a week or two earlier disconnected my TV and would only use it to watch inoffensive videos from then on. I had conducted a 9 month study whereby I would make a note of every time the Catholic Church was mentioned on any TV or Radio programme. I would make a quick reference to the Channel, the subject, and the nature of the programme, whether it was hostile, and fair or unfair. I found that the Catholic Church was only mentioned on the BBC and occasionally on Channel 4 but never in a positive light. I didn't recognise the Church they were protraying. Over the past 10 years things just got worse. I suspected all the mediated Catholic bashing had an ulterior motive - to change Catholic doctrines especially on morality.

CUT has supported other initiatives and sometimes gives links to other websites as long as they are in line with Catholic teaching. Though we usually receive support in return it surprises me that some simply do not return CUT the favour. Is the telly so strong?

Vatican II or the media

I firmly believe that the problems of the modern Church are not caused by Vatican II but by modern secular society, and by many in the laity and hierarchy who look to the modern world and not to the teachings of the Church but to the spirit of the age.  We find a left/liberal dictatorship prevalent in the modern media and in modern secular society. Its voice is amplified by the TV, where people - including Catholics - get their views, their knowledge, their values and their beliefs. Modernists have always been there, as St Pius X knew and wrote in Pascendi Dominici Gregis They didn’t just come into being after Vatican II. Some say Vatican II should have expressly forbidden much of modern secularism. The problem is, Satan is very innovative. But the Church already has in place all her teachings on morality and they are very much needed today. The hard teachings on sin, especially on sex, abortion, and homosexuality can never change, but change is often promoted by the secular media. This of course has an impact on the laity who on average spend four hours per day in front of the TV and yet only an hour in Church per week.

The TV agitprop

Let’s have a quick look at one of the TV innovators, just to give a snapshot of what’s happened. Sydney Newman, TV producer and the head of BBC drama from 1962 to 1970 knew that the television was the single most powerful tool for social change in the hands of those who know how to use it. Remember, by 1962 almost every household had a TV. Families would gather around the TV every evening and it is there they would receive the new anti-gospel. The new good news as Newman saw it was to liberate people’s minds and to make his audience take action. Some of the programmes Newman established were very innovative and popular such as Dr Who and the Avengers. He was also behind the enormously influential The Wednesday Play. For this he collected a core team of like-minded producers, writers and directors such as James MacTaggart, Tony Garnett and Ken Loach. This team was to produce special plays that would challenge the social norm, plays like Up the Junction whose central theme ranged around the new liberal attitude to sex among the ‘proletariat’ and the need to stop them breeding too much.  The most powerful scene was a backstreet abortion; some credit this with the change in the abortion law. Another was the Horror of Darkness which had an underlying homosexual element.  Many social scientists credit the above TV programmes as being interventionist in the political arena and that they helped, to a large extent, to change the law and people’s values on morality.

Sydney Newman’s maxim was agitational contemporaneity, his philosophy of socially engaged TV: television to change people.  This is virtually the same as the eastern block’s use of film to cement the Soviet version of socialism, known as agitprop, ‘agitational propaganda’, in the use of film to control people’s views and values.  It’s the same with modern TV.

Sometimes close to giving it all up

I have quite a few times said to my wife (to her delight): that’s it, I’ve had enough, this is just too hard, no one or at least very few are listening and it all takes up such a lot of time. But usually something happens; some piece of media nonsense or anti-Catholic trip particularly on the BBC, or a kind letter from a supporter helps me keep going, so I will not give up as long as we have a core group that supports our aims. We have in fact grown, if very slowly, over the years, and it’s getting to the point where it’s difficult to organise the blog, the website, the briefings and the newsletter on my own. I am very grateful to our proof reader and to everyone who writes for us, distributes the newsletters and makes donations to help fund us. 100% of every donation goes into CUT and all work is voluntary.  It has always surprised me how little support we get from other orthodox groups and traditional blogs and websites.  The liberals on the other hand just hate us full stop!

I will post in the next few weeks some of the early CUT articles from our newsletters.

Pink Swastika

The Pink Swastika

You don’t need me to tell you that there have been some extraordinary developments in the last few years particularly in the area of so called ‘Gay’ rights. The pro-homosexual lobby in Britain and Europe has achieved victory after victory not only in the legislature but more importantly in the minds of ordinary people. Now that the Queen (our last hope) has given the Royal assent to “Gay” marriage, and the Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the Christian attitude to gay people is ‘wicked’ and that we should ‘repent’, their victory is almost absolute. Blimey, this is a complete reversal of the position of Christian leaders a few years ago. At CUT we believe there is one reason for this – the media is so pro-homosexual that they have brainwashed the majority into accepting what is an unnatural and dangerous form of sex.

It’s not only the decadent West that the media is now trying to influence but more Traditional family minded countries in Central and Eastern Europe and in particular Russia.

BBC gives pro-homosexuals a platform to attack Russian laws

It appears that Steven Fry and others have being given a platform by the BBC to campaign for a protest at the Winter Olympics against Russia. President Putin’s government recently put in place laws that stop the promotion of homosexuality in the media such as Gay and Lesbian kissing on television. With all the fuss some are making in western Europe you’d think they have actually banned homosexuality altogether; but no, homosexuals are as free to indulge themselves in their dangerous sexual practices in Russia as they are in Western Europe. Steven Fry’s recent open letter to David Cameron and the Olympic Committee is a case in point, using words like “barbaric” and claiming that Russia’s new laws are “making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews”. This type of language seems offensive to the memory of holocaust victims. Just because they can’t force ‘Gay’ kissing on prime time family viewing on the TV and in other forms of media they are labelling countries Nazi. Russia, you should understand, lost 25 million killed to the Nazis during WWII. It must be shocking for them to be labelled like this. Many Nazis were in fact homosexuals and in an act of self-hatred persucuted other homosexuals.

In Britain of course homosexual kissing and other pro-Gay storylines are common fare especially during primetime family viewing. For those at the BBC who use family viewing time to install pro-Gay storylines know exactly what they are doing. They want, as a prime objective, to install pro-homosexual values to their viewers and they will browbeat anyone who dares protest by labelling them homophobic or Gay bashers.

We are not homophobes – they are!

Don’t be afraid of being labelled homophobic when you are standing up for natural law and justice. The real homophobes are those who are so afraid of the pro-homosexual lobby that they will give in to any of their demands. David Cameron is homophobic and so is the Archbishop of Canterbury and anyone who has a fear of being labelled ‘homophobic’. But how long will it be before the time comes that even to write a blog or raise any objection to the homosexual lobby will mean being thrown into prison or a psychiatric ward? Remember: the use of the word phobia means that you have a problem, an unnatural fear, in this case of homosexuals. Therefore, you have a psychiatric problem for which you will need treatment.

The Sodom and Gomorra Broadcasting and Media Corporation

The secular media is bashing archbishop John Nienstedt for his Christian views on Gays.

The fanatically pro-homosexual Huff Post are at it again – whacking anything and anyone who will stand up and proclaim true Christian teachings on homosexuality. If these teachings are delivered in a clear and charitable way they will get even more indignant, see this page from the Huff Post they have even posted EWTN’s video of him giving the offending talk. Well done EWTN and Archbishop John Nienstedt; as I have always said, when the pro-homosexual lobby and its brainwashing media outlets start to praise the Church that’s when we need to worry. But like Lot during his visit to Sodom and Gomorra we need to pray for them even when they are in the streets and shouting in our faces.

 

They’ll keep the pink flag flying here

Is this getting pretty close to the real philosophy of the Nazis and other totalitarian philosophies:   that purging the views of any section of society which does not conform to the media-approved norm could soon be upon us? Some in the hotel industry already believe this, and can you get a job in many areas of the public sector if you believe in traditional family values? The Pink Swastika may be a provocative title for this post but when Western broadcasters such as Steven Fry and others like the Huff Post and the BBC start to try and ‘civilise’ other cultures into what they believe to be the norm, we are on a very ‘sticky wicket’.

Big Payoffs and ‘Killer Jesuits’ at the BBC

Big Payoffs at the BBC

It’s funny how the media works, at the moment some media outlets think that all the problems of the world can be laid at the feet of the Jesuits even the problems at the BBC. I have been tempted to leave the BBC stew in its own juices over the big payoffs row. Why bother to blog about something that every British newspaper is stating, that the huge payoffs BBC bosses are getting are a disgrace and it’s the poor license fee payer who is footing the bill. However, as we have always said if you pay the license fee to this corrupt Corporation what do you expect? Ex-Director general Mark Thompson we understand was given a severance payment of £1 million, it took 6,500 licence fees to pay this amount of money; according to the BBC friendly Guardian newspaper, Thompson claims that Lord Patten was ‘"fundamentally misleading" parliament over the extent of his knowledge of controversial six-figure payoffs to senior staff at the broadcaster.’ In fact according to the National Audit Office the BBC has paid out £25 million to 150 departing bosses between 2009 and 2012. Lord Patten is the chairman of the BBC Trust which replaced the BBC Board of Governors. The Trust was put in place to regulate BBC management and act as the representative of the Licence fee payer. This of course has never worked as some members of CUT have found out. The BBC Trust appears to act as a firewall for the BBC and treats complaints and appeals for balance and fair play as a virus that must be blocked. And it appears that the BBC Trust’s main aim regarding the Corporation’s bosses was to regulate how many millions they were to be paid when leaving.

            The fact that both Mark Thompson and Lord Patten are both Catholics should have been a great time of pride for us. That after centuries of oppression Catholics can now take their place among the opinion formers of the nation. This is of course a sad delusion, Thompson tenure as DG coincided with the longest period of Catholic bashing in the media since the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy. For as our Prayer Crusader under the patronage of St Gerard pointed out in his Scapegoating of Catholicism, 45% of BBC reports on child abuse were directed at the Catholic clergy and yet only 0.1% were actually committed by Catholic clergy.

            Sadly Patten and Thompson at the BBC have done nothing for Catholics despite one media outlet referring to them as Killer Jesuits. Killer Jesuits! That these two free-lunch-aholics should be linked with the once great Jesuit order is funniest thing I’ve heard in ages, when they are more like Fatman and Bobbin the un-caped crusaders. But conspiracy theories abound and as we now have a Jesuit pope the civilized world had better watch out. Since Francis became Pope the level of silly Jesuit conspiracy theories have escalated beyond belief. Here are just a few that would make ‘great’ novels – perhaps they are novels! Here goes, the Jesuits were behind the assignation of President Kennedy, the Jesuits were behind the two world wars, the Jesuits were behind the holocaust, the Jesuits are in-league with the Jews to promote a socialist world, the Jesuits were part of a KGB plot to kill the Pope, the Jesuits were ordered by the Pope to undermine communism, the Jesuits run the Illuminati, the Jesuits are the Illuminati, Pope Frances and his Jesuit Order are behind the New World Order, and the Jesuits sunk the Titanic! Phew and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

There are even those who are intimating that the payoffs and pedophiles scandals at the BBC are the result a Jesuit plot to undermine the BBC. Usually to merit such attacks and conspiracy theories against any Catholic and in particularly the Jesuits would mean that they are being successful in converting this neo-Protestant/secular world. The sad thing is as far as their reputation for converting the world to Catholicism is concerned, they are living off the collective memory of the great Jesuit martyrs of the Reformation. The truth is that apart from a few notable exceptions the Jesuits of today are more like ageing toothless tigers; too ready to appease the secular fundamentalist and atheists of today than engage in any form of combat (spiritual or actual) for the sake of Jesus and His One true Church.