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	The Spinmeister By Vinnie Nauheimer National Survivor Advocates Coalition April 22, 2011 http://mnsnap.wordpress.com/vinnie/ One of the sad truths that history teaches us is that hand in hand with a great evil comes the great spinmeister. Whether the Minister of Propaganda is drawn into the vortex of evil or is intrinsically evil himself can be debated like the chicken and the egg. The answer is irrelevant, but the fact that they feed the evil and are responsible for the perpetuation of evil will always be relevant. The twentieth century has given us two extraordinary spinmeisters: Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, and Squealer the Pig in George Orwell’s Classic book “Animal Farm.” The first part of the twenty-first century has given us, in my opinion, another: William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League. Mr. Donohue recently published a brilliant PR piece in the form of a paid advertisement in the NY Times. This is right out of Goebbels’ playbook, “Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda” Number 6: “To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.” thus the paid advertisement in the NY Times. Subterfuge, distortions, omissions and denial were intricately woven to portray the church as the object victim in what is now considered the Global Clergy Abuse Scandal. Such a fine piece of work cannot and should not go unnoticed. Mr. Donohue is indeed a master manipulator of language. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, knew the importance of a scapegoat. Hitler is reported to have said of Goebbels that his success was due to both his mastery of language and intellect. Mr. Donohue has both these qualities as does Squealer in Animal Farm. Goebbels chose for his scapegoat the Jews and subsequently through the force of language and sheer intellect, led an entire nation to believe that the source of their problems were the Jews. Although Donohue mentions the clergy abuse problem among Rabbis, he was careful not to go too far for fear of being branded anti-Semitic. Goebblel’s eighteenth dictum in his principles of propaganda is as follows: “Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.” The scapegoat selected by Donohue is none other than the pariah of the Catholic Church, Homosexuals! Notice how the clever Donohue never uses the words homosexual priests together in the entire length of his essay! (see dictum 18 above) Notice how deftly Donohue omits the preposterous presumption that there would ever be homosexual priests in an organization that considers homosexual acts to be depraved. (http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2004/ 0407sbs.asp ) Blame without an in depth examination is the trademark of a great spin doctor. Throw it out, let it stick to the wall and then move on. Donohue defines the clergy abuse scandal as a homosexual problem. The beauty of ignoring the relevance of homosexual priests is that it avoids embarrassing questions such as: Why does a church so profoundly anti-gay ordain so many gay priests?, Why upon discovering the homosexual acts with minors, did it actively protect these priests and what do theses actions say about the sexuality of the hierarchy? Donohue believes he has found his true calling. He is single handedly shielding his church from the homosexual horde that seeks to undermine his church and those that promote them. Consider the outlandish proposition that the victims are not children! In this case Mr. Donohue makes a blanket statement that would make both Goebbels and Squealer turn green with envy. “let’s get it straight—they weren’t children and they weren’t raped” This statement is made with authority. It is confusing and meant to confuse, which was the hallmark of Squealer. The spinmeister speaks as if he is the first and last word on what constitutes a child; speaking from authority is a benchmark of a great spin doctor. Without saying what they were, he implies that the abused weren’t children. Notice how the propaganda leaves out ages. The readers say to themselves well if they weren’t children, they must have been older. Does older mean its okay? Does it make a difference if a child was ten, thirteen or fifteen when they were assaulted by their priest? Though the former may be termed a child and the latter an adolescent among those who utilize psychobabble (Spinmeisters) to make the act more palatable to their audience, does the rape, sodomization or molestation make the crime any less heinous? A good propagandist knows it does and employs the tactic every chance they get. Goebbels seventh law part d.: states that the propaganda must be boomerang proof. Donohue does a masterful job of omitting young girls from the equation by insisting the clergy abuse scandal is all about homosexuality. By minimizing the number and nature of crimes against female minors he makes his argument about homosexuals boomerang proof. Quoting numbers such as over 80% of the abuse cases were of a homosexual nature he sets the parameters of clergy abuse. Once this is ingrained in the readers head, they will completely ignore the fact that the Vatican itself states that worldwide 30% of the cases of sexual abuse by priests is of a heterosexual nature and 10% is other. Donohue skips by this so fast that one never has the time to ponder either what the 10% other is or the fact that thirty percent plus ten percent equals forty percent so it is mathematically impossible to have over 80% of the sexual abuse be of a homosexual nature. Like Squealer and Goebbels, he knows that if he is ever called on it in the future, he can say he included the numbers, but in true fashion, he expects no one to call him on his numbers and if somebody did, he would dismiss them with the wave of a hand. Who could possibly deny the brilliance of framing his argument as a dalliance among priests? A mere touch, a palpable touch nevertheless. “Minimization of the act” is the operative mandate. The acts of raping, sodomizing and molesting minors are considered felony crimes in most countries, Donohue never goes there. He avoids the criminal aspect like the plague for it would not do well to have anyone associate the Catholic Church with criminal activity or see the words criminal priest in a sentence. Like Squealer, Donohue utilizes his command of language to justify the unjustifiable acts of priests who abused children and the hierarchy who covered up these acts. He has the traits of a lap dog and a pit bull: blind allegiance to his church and the tenacity to never let go. Bringing in teachers and other organizations says to the public: yes, we have a few problems, but there are other groups such as the schools, other religions, etc that have problems too. “Its not only our problem” is another minimization tactic that is hard to rebuff. To his credit, Donohue cleverly avoids the global scale of Roman Catholic Clergy Abuse because it serves no purpose to let people know that there are credibly abused priests in over thirty countries around the world. Schools aren’t global and don’t move priests, bishops and cardinals around the world at will so Donohue localizes the issue to minimize it. One cannot overrate the need for minimization of clergy abuse. A church that professes to be the one true church, whose priests are chosen by God, whose pope is the spiritual descendant of Christ and whose stated mission is to speak for the poor and vulnerable simply cannot either be associated with or guilty of sexual abuse. Donohue knows this and it is in this framework he tirelessly expends his energy. In the neighborhood where I grew up, we had an expression when someone was trying to con us. It was, “Stop pulling my chain!” In the spirit of that expression, I nominate William Donohue for the “Pull It Sir Award.” for his first rate propaganda. This BOOH is for you!
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