Minn. Public Radio’s Madeleine Baran to Be Headline Speaker at This Year’s Conference for Snap, Further Abandons Any Pretense of Ethical Journalism

By David Pierre
Media Report
June 11, 2015

http://www.themediareport.com/2015/06/09/madeleine-baran-and-snap-tla/

Professionalism and objectivity out the window: Madeleine Baran from Minnesota Public Radio

In covering the issue of the media and Catholic sex abuse for over a decade now, we do not believe we have seen reporting as dishonest and biased as that from Madeleiene Baran from Minnesota Public Radio (MPR).

Indeed, Baran has shamelessly smeared an innocent priest, has claimed facts which were either outright false and misleading, and has produced a three-part series that was an inaccurate and irresponsible screed against Church officials based upon thin evidence and innuendo.

Perfect soulmates

Therefore, it was little surprise when we saw that MPR's Baran will be a headline speaker at this year's annual conference for the lawyer-funded, anti-Catholic group SNAP.

As we have reported in the past (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), SNAP's annual get-togethers have little to do with actually providing support for victims as they do with providing a forum for speakers to rail against the Catholic Church on topics that have nothing to do with sex abuse and allowing Church-suing contingency lawyers to further bankroll the organization.

Indeed, past conferences have included such speakers as the radical pro-abortion advocate Eleanor Smeal and the wacky Rev. Barry Lynn railing against the Church over left-wing political issues.

And the world's leading Church-suing contingency lawyer, Jeff Anderson, regularly acts as the carnival-barking fundraiser when it comes time to ask attendees, from which there are other plaintiff lawyers, to pony up their cash. We have already shown that the vast majority of money raised by SNAP at its conferences comes from Church-suing lawyers.

By appearing at SNAP's conference, Baran has shirked any pretense of fairness or objectivity when it comes to her reporting of abuse in the Catholic Church. Baran has conceded that she has taken sides in her reporting and has herself become a participant and advocate in the story she is covering as a so-called journalist.

Baran will fit in perfectly with this crooked crowd.