BishopAccountability.org
	A New Documentary Embellishing Evil? Media Watch [California] October 12, 2006 http://www.la-clergycases.com/ We first encountered Amy Berg a year and a half ago when, as a freelance producer, she was involved in a CNN "news" broadcast about the Archdiocese's response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal. We place "news" in quotation marks because the story turned out to be little more than a hit-piece designed to cast the Archdiocese and Cardinal Mahony in the worst possible light. A few months later Ms. Berg surfaced again during a demonstration at the Cathedral by members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Such demonstrations were nothing new, and the Archdiocese had always respected the organization's right to voice its opinion so long as SNAP respected the worshippers' rights to attend services in a safe and peaceful environment. It was on this issue that this demonstration differed from earlier ones. While Cardinal Mahony was leading the celebration of the Mass, a demonstrator entered the sanctuary and handcuffed himself to the Archbishop's chair, disrupting the service and frightening many worshippers. Amid fears for the safety of both Cardinal Mahony and the worshippers, police officers removed and arrested the demonstrator. Of course, this sparked a great deal of media interest. Following the handcuffing incident, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese was in the Cathedral's plaza area giving a statement to reporters. As this briefing was underway, Ms. Berg - carrying a SNAP protest sign - led one of the protestors up the stairs from the demonstration area to the plaza. They were stopped by security officers, who informed Ms. Berg she could not enter with the SNAP sign. She insisted she was going to keep the sign with her. At this point, another SNAP protestor took the sign from her and started back down to the demonstration area. After yelling at him not to bend her sign, Ms. Berg then led her protestor the rest of the way up to the plaza. She was accompanied by an entourage that included at least one camera operator documenting events for SNAP. Still leading her protestor, Ms. Berg then hurried over to where the spokesperson for the Archdiocese and the media were gathered. As the cameras rolled, Ms. Berg urged her protestor close to the spokesperson, encouraging the protestor to engage him in conversation - a rather obvious attempt to orchestrate an ambush interview. When the spokesperson said he had already given his statement on the handcuffing incident and started to move away, Ms. Berg again inserted herself into the story she was ostensibly covering by blurting out: "I cannot believe that you have someone here who wants to speak with you and you are not going to talk to her. That's unbelievable." This incident involving Ms. Berg was captured on the security camera and the look on her face was one of glee and triumph. Such conduct was hardly that of an unbiased journalist. And, indeed, Ms. Berg later admitted she was not attending the demonstration as a representative of CNN, but instead was there to gather material to include in a "documentary" she was preparing on clergy abuse. Well, the "documentary" is now finished and is to make its debut at the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival (following a special screening only for SNAP members, an event which in itself makes a telling point about the film's point of view.) Judging by the brief movie trailer she's posted to promote her work, Ms. Berg has repented neither her bias nor her love of staging a scene, no matter how loathsome, in order to make a point. In Ms Berg's words, Deliver Us From Evil "tells the story of Oliver O'Grady, a pedophile priest from Ireland who abused countless children…" O'Grady is a difficult individual to forget, literally making one's skin crawl as he does. In past stories about him, he is unrepentant and repugnant; indeed, with a smirk on his face, he actually brags that his days of abusing children may not be over. Thus, it would hardly seem that any new retelling of his career might require embellishment. (He is evil personified - and, at least in that, the title of Ms. Berg's film may be on the mark.) Yet, judging by the brief trailer, at any rate, embellishment is exactly what Ms. Berg resorts to. There is a scene in the trailer in which this monster, who admits he cannot control his urges toward innocent children, has apparently been taken to a playground by the film crew. And at the playground there is orchestrated a scene in which O'Grady leans against a fence and intently eyes the children. Even if we weren't already made leery by Ms. Berg's previous behavior in covering sexual abuse issues, this sort of contrived "storytelling" hardly augers well for the film as a whole. Having said that, we will note that we have not yet, of course, been able to view the whole film.
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