c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The recent nastiness zinging among Catholic League President Bill Donohue, Fox pundit Bill O’Reilly and presidential candidate John Edwards’ erstwhile “progressive” bloggers spotlights a new low in civil discourse.

Low-blow commentary was caused _ and in some respects matched _ by Web site trash-talk about Catholicism posted by 20-something feminists Amanada Marcotte and Melissa McEwen, who were hired to work on Edwards’ campaign blog.

The world has long suffered from private lack of civility, but now anyone can publish anything immediately and worldwide. Trash passes for information and snideness for commentary. The online language spawned by the fracas is unbelievable, and unprintable.

Marcotte could have been sent by central casting for her role in the drama. An East Texas native transplanted to Austin 11 years ago, she studied English at St. Edward’s University there. She has two cats and, judging from her “at home” photos posted on flickr.com, is no threat to Martha Stewart. She rails against Feminists for Life, the pope and just about anything Catholic in postings that bleed trashy colloquialisms and which continued while she worked for Edwards.

McEwen was hired as technical adviser (not a blogger) for Edwards’ campaign. Under fire, she quit but regretted “letting down her peers,” who presumably don’t mind her gutter language, especially about Catholicism.

Edwards defended their “personal opinions,” but both women eventually left his campaign blogshop.

Catholic-educated O’Reilly claimed victory on behalf of truth, justice, and the American way: “Everyone knows Edwards would never employ an anti-Semite, a Klan member or an anti-Muslim bigot or a homophobe, but he had no problem standing by two anti-Christian women.” In response Edwards “gave us the middle digit,” O’Reilly said, favoring a vulgarity that provides its own commentary.

Catholic-educated Donohue, who finds an anti-Catholic under every rock (and is, unfortunately, often correct) said: “One of Yogi Berra’s most famous quips is, `It ain’t over till it’s over.’ I have news for John Edwards _ it’s over.” Donohue told anyone who would listen that the two women were “foul-mouthed bigots” and “loose cannons with no particular loyalty to Edwards.”

When Edwards inititally refused to fire the two, Donohue threatened “a nationwide public relations blitz” that promised Edwards’ actions “will not be forgotten.”

The online magazine Salon.com got into the act, calling Donohue a “conservative Catholic bellyacher.” Frances Kissling, departing head of pro-abortion Catholics for a Free Choice, told Salon.com she was not “personally offended” by Marcotte’s locker-room suggestions about Catholic doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, and did not see a problem. She blamed the ruckus on a right-wing conspiracy to derail Democratic candidates.

Edwards was perfectly capable of derailing himself: “The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte’s and Melissa McEwen’s posts,” he said, “personally offended me. It’s not how I talk to people, and it’s not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it’s intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake.”

The fair shake left the two on staff until the O’Reilly-Donohue machine cranked into full-wind mode, gaining television news coverage and some valuable real estate in The New York Times.

But _ and here’s the twist _ McEwen says she had to quit because of electronic anger directed her way.

“There will be some who clamor to claim victory for my resignation,” she wrote, “but I caution them that in doing so, they are tacitly accepting responsibility for those who have deluged my blog and my inbox with vitriol and veiled threats. It is not right-wing bloggers, nor people like Bill Donohue or Bill O’Reilly, who prompted nor deserve credit for my resignation, no matter how much they want it, but individuals who used public criticisms of me as an excuse to unleash frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation.”

Anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would not speak the way the players in this drama did.

“This,” McEwen concluded, “is a win for no one.” Despite her own offensive writing, she might have a point.

(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of several books in Catholic Studies.)

KRE END ZAGANO

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