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He's dead, and that's why it's front-page news.
Due to a quirk in the libel laws, you can't slander a dead person. That's why there are books out today that claim Elvis had sex with his mother or that President Kennedy murdered Marilyn Monroe.
Last Wednesday, as newspapers across the country trumpeted the revelations of George Bush's botched war plans, the virulently anti-Catholic Niagara Gazette chose instead to lead with a story of a dead priest and the allegations made against him by unnamed sources.
According to the Gazette, Rev. Richard Judd, the pastor at St. Teresa's back in the 1970s, allowed young men to drink and have sex with a girl in the rectory some 30 years ago. According to one named and one unnamed source, Judd was actually interested in having sex with the boys himself. Not the kind of stuff that would stand up in court and certainly not the kind of stuff the Gazette would print if Judd were alive and had access to an attorney.
They did, however, come up with a colorful graphic depicting a priest's collar underneath the words "FALL FROM GRACE." It seems they're hoping to get a series out of this. Award-winning stuff, they figure.
The alleged journalist writing the stories, Rick Pfeiffer, is a former news reader from one of the Buffalo television stations who wants his face back on the small screen so bad he can taste it. He doesn't live in Niagara Falls, and doesn't care about it any more than he cares about Poughkeepsie. What he did to screw up his gig and wind up as a $27,000-a-year hack at one of the crummiest newspapers in the country we can only imagine.
Perhaps it was something like sullying the name of a dead priest based on claims made by unnamed sources concerning things that may or may not have happened three decades ago.
Top of the front page.
Pfeiffer, by the way, is also responsible for the "Niagara's Most Wanted" feature in the Sunday newspaper, which has resulted in the recent publication of more photographs of African-American males than the Gazette has run in the past 10 years.
In a conversation with me several years ago, Gazette Editor Terry Shaw likened Catholicism to voodoo and said anybody who believed in it was an idiot. Prior to this last round of bashing, that bias played itself out mainly in the paper's coverage of the troubles in Northern Ireland. Catholic violence bad, Protestant violence ignored.
I'm not quite sure what Pfeiffer, Shaw and company are up to. Maybe they think that because Niagara Falls is a largely Catholic community, bashing the Church somehow demonstrates they have guts.
Too bad they couldn't show the same fearlessness when it came to Local 91, Kaleida, Cintra or Adelphia. Maybe it would have made a difference.
But what they came up with was a dead priest. Who's not around to defend himself. Who you can say anything you want about and not have to worry about hiring a lawyer or getting punched in the nose. Who conveniently provides you with a "local angle" on a national story.
They didn't even have the moxie or talent to find out whether Rev. Judd's alleged indiscretions were covered up by the diocese, or whether his higher-ups were even aware of the supposed activity.
Tough guys, so they are.
But, in keeping with the spirit of Catholicism, I would suggest we all say a prayer this Sunday for Shaw and Pfeiffer. Let us pray that Terry's children's book -- based on his nauseating columns about his dog, Jack -- hits big and he can move back to Pennsylvania or West Virginia or any place that will have him. Let's pray that Rick's dreams come true and that Channel 2 suddenly becomes racist and sectarian and delivers him from the ghetto of the Niagara Gazette.
And, while we're at it, let's all pray for the paper's publisher, Steve Braver. He's the one who needs it most of all. Because, ultimately, the responsibility for the anti-Catholic sentiments finding their way to the top of the front page rests squarely upon his shoulders.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | August 13 2002 |