Monday, October 25, 2010

The first rule of Purge Club is you don't talk about Purge Club.

The Catholic blogosphere, rather like the rest of the net, is a mixed bag. Even the orthodox ones run the gamut. For some reason, that's news today. It's not particularly impressive, though it does correctly note that blog reporting brought to light the problems with CCHD fund recipients. And, yes, some Catholic bloggers who pride themselves on their orthodoxy misplace the charity button and behave like jerks. But overall, the reporting carries with it the suggestion of cultural incomprehension: a coastal reporter discovers and is repelled by the weird rituals performed by the bumpkiny types in flyover country. Note the terms used: purge, enraged, starkest, dissecting. Hard to see a similar article looking at the Kos bloggers or even the staff blogs at the Reporter, despite the recurrent nastiness of Mr. Winters at the latter publication.

Somewhat interesting, but mostly the same old same old. Still, I was baffled by this reference:

Thomas Peters, who runs the popular "AmericanPapist" blog, said fellow orthodox Catholics have embraced the Web because they feel they finally have a platform that can compete with well-established liberal Catholic publications, such as the National Catholic Reporter. (Some conservative bloggers call the paper "the National Catholic Destroyer.")

I'd never heard that one before. Tom's never used it. I've read "National Catholic Distorter," yeah. But "Destroyer"? Never.

Curiously, a Bing search reveals that every single reference to the "National Catholic Destroyer" is from this article or commentaries on it.

Not a single independent reference. If bloggers are using it, you'd think there'd be some actual evidence for it on the internet. Peculiar.

3 comments:

  1. It's a good thing that have those multiple layers of fact checking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Purge Club" - hah! Very good!

    So where's the next meeting? Over by that place next to the building with the big sign on it, across the street from the empty warehouse?

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's interesting--people in the basement wearing pajamas some seem to be catching things that people with journalism degrees and professional credentials just don't.

    BTW-do you have any idea where I can find an Internet Button that says "Lamestream"?

    ReplyDelete

Be reasonably civil. Ire alloyed with reason is fine. But slagging the host gets you the banhammer.

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