New York, Aug. 12, 2003 (CWNews.com /LifeSiteNews.com) – The CBS television network has refused to issue a retraction or clarification of a misleading news story in which the CBS Evening News charged that the Vatican had orchestrated a cover-up plan for sex-abuse cases in the US. The original CBS story, broadcast August 6, had cited a 1962 Vatican document as the “smoking gun” indicating Rome’s approval for a cover-up policy. In fact, as CWN pointed out in a story the following day, that document had been devoted to an entirely different topic: the seal of confessional. When Relevant Radio talk-show host Jeff Cavins protested the CBS distortion, the network invited him to participate in a follow-up interview. To Cavins’ horror, however, the network carefully edited his 20-minute interview, broadcasting only a snippet that made it appear that Cavins was angry with the Vatican rather than with the CBS misrepresentation.
Cavins has rallied his Catholic listeners to call CBS in protest of the misleading story and the equally misleading follow-up. He referred listeners to the CBS national headquarters in New York (212-975-4114) and to the Los Angeles office (323-575-2202) from which correspondent Vince Gonzales prepared the inaccurate stories.