Respectable newspapers are expected to be objective, and not become the voice box of activist organizations. This is not true of the Kansas City Star; its relationship with SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) is incestuous.
To take the latest example, on November 1, Judge James Dale Youngs of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, dismissed a case brought by SNAP lawyer Rebecca Randles against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph; Randles never even bothered to respond to the motion to dismiss. But the real story here is why senior Star reporter Judy L. Thomas, who wrote about the initial lawsuit, never told readers about this development.
When this suit was initially filed on March 8, the Star ran a story by Thomas about it on p. 7. And guess who announced it? SNAP. So now that Randles and SNAP look foolish, or worse, why wasn't this reported? By the way, Thomas made reference to this case several times in the intervening months. Moreover, in the past three months, Thomas cited SNAP 10 times in her stories. So why the cover-up about the motion to dismiss the lawsuit?
The editorial board of the Star has similarly been compromised. On May 21, its editorial on the Fr. Shawn Ratigan case cited SNAP's criticisms of the diocese. Ten days later, in another editorial, it once again favorably quoted SNAP. Perhaps most interesting was the editorial of June 4 that called for Bishop Robert Finn to resign: one day before, in a news story which named SNAP, it just happened to say that "Some Catholics will gather today and call for the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn…." How cute. First have some local "Catholics" call for the bishop to resign, and then let the brave souls at the newspaper follow suit.
The Star is nothing more than an echo chamber for SNAP.
Contact Star publisher, Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com
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