Dear Readers,
Editor John-Henry Westen and myself were away in Charlotte, North Carolina for a few days last week to cover the US Catholic Leadership Conference. John Jalsevac filled in for both of us during that time and did a fine job at the gruelling task.
The Conference was really encouraging and once again we encountered unexpected strong praise from many leaders whom we did not even know regularly read LifeSiteNews. It was especially delightful to encounter Baker, Oregon Bishop Robert Vasa. The man is a whirlwind of involvement in efforts to reverse the moral and spiritual decline of the United States. We believe you will be hearing a lot more about Bishop Vasa in the years ahead.
Today we have ramped up our coverage of the US and Canadian elections. The interview with Campaign Life Coalition leader Jim Hughes gives a lot of food for thought about how the Canadian election might be addressed by pro-life Canadians. It is not an encouraging picture but, if the voters do what they should – which according to Hughes most have not done for the past four decades – there is hope that the politically aided advance of the culture of death will begin to be reversed.
The contrast between the US and Canadian elections can hardly be greater. John McCain’s unapologetic defence of Sarah Palin’s comments about God’s will and the Iraq war would never be given by any of the leaders of Canada’s political parties with elected MPs. They all go to obscene lengths to shove God out of their politics.
A conversation today with a dear Catholic deacon friend, who is strongly pro-life, really opened my eyes about how easily the public can be deceived by the media scheming against Palin.
I understood immediately what Palin was saying when I saw the video of her making those comments about praying that God’s will be done regarding the US troops in Iraq. She was NOT expressing a view for or against the US military agenda. It was an authentic Christian expression of desire that God’s will be done, whatever it should be. Still, my dear friend was completely bamboozled by the media spin making Palin appear to be a war monger and Obama to be a good choice for people of faith. It has to make you wonder how many other good folks are being taken in by all this.
I strongly suggest you take a look at two items posted recently on Newsbusters. One is a European video takeoff on the Lion King renamed Lying King. Newsbusters says “it marvelously uses a song from the hit Disney film “The Lion King” to expose what’s behind the media’s bloodthirsty attacks on Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.” Let me tell you, it does do that, and although it is only a cartoon, it seems frighteningly on target. See https://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/09/14/sunday-funnies-lying-king-exposes-medias-palin-attacks
Secondly, if you saw the interview with Sarah Palin, didn’t it seem to you that something was wrong with the visual setup that made Gibson appear especially large and intimidating in comparison to Sarah Palin? Well, that was no accident. According to a Hollywood film expert, ABC used camera angles and particular lenses to deliberately undermine Palin’s appearance on the set. Take a look. It seems a totally credible charge to us. See “Charlie Gibson and ABC News Camera Trickery” at https://hollywoodtrenches.vox.com/library/post/make-smaller-telephoto.html
Steve Jalsevac
LifeSiteNews.com