In their reporting on the financing of the Marriage Amendment in MN, the Star Tribune is treating leftist organizations with kid gloves.
First off, they treat a Human Rights Campaign press release as if it were a real story.
A report by the Human Rights Campaign on Thursday said that the Catholic Church has contributed more than half of the funding into efforts to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota.
Look into the tall grass and you will see that this is not nearly so shocking as it sounds:
Minnesota Catholic Conference Marriage Defense Fund, a political committee created solely to raise money for the effort, has contributed half of the $1.2 million raised to support the measure, the report said.
Okay, so half of $1.2 million is, by my calculations, about $600,000. Of that, “$180,000 came from dioceses around and (sic) the nation, along with more than $130,000 from the Knights of Columbus, the nation’s largest Catholic fraternal organization. The group’s fundraising includes $150,000 combined from dioceses in Crookston, St. Cloud and Winona.”
Where’s the beef? Catholics giving to a Catholic political-action group. I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you.
In the meantime, according to the story itself,
The Human Rights Campaign, Freedom to Marry and their affiliate groups have contributed more than $1.4 million to Minnesotans United for All Families, the group opposing the amendment.
In other words, these two organizations and their affiliates alone have contributed more than the entire budget of Minnesota for Marriage. As Chuck Darrell, head of Minnesota for Marriage put it: “They are vastly out spending our side and they now have the gall to complain about it? It’s embarrassing to see such whining.”
As for getting some Catholic balance to the story, the Star Tribune does quote the Minnesota Catholic Conference. But the Star Tribune then turns to the Catholic Left, the old stand-by astro-turf organization, Call to Action. Brought to you fresh from the 1970’s, along with a leisure suit and a lava lamp. It’s hard to believe this bunch of professional dissidents is still around.
Get a clue, Star Tribune. Catholics are spending their own money, through their own organizations, to promote their beliefs. Jeff Bezos spent $2.5 million of his own money in the state of Washington to impose his view that marriage is a genderless institution. Catholics are allowed to spend their money too.