Sometimes you just have to give it to Bill Donohue of the Catholic League. He’s a little harsh sometimes for my taste but listen to this.

A story today by the Associated Press on Pope Benedict XVI’s address in Brazil yesterday ridiculously asserted that the pope ‘defended the church’s often bloody campaign to Christianize indigenous people….’

McClatchy newspapers followed suit claiming that the pope ‘defended the Roman Catholic Church’s often bloody campaign to Christianize indigenous people.’

Donohue saw this. He didn’t complain. He picked up the phone and called the reporters.

The two reporters, Alan Clendenning of AP and Jack Chang of McClatchy, were asked by the Catholic League to explain how they both wound up with the identical language; they were also asked to ‘pinpoint the part of the pope’s speech’ where he defended violence.

Neither could pinpoint where in the speech the pope defended violence.

Donohue called this “journalism at its worst” and asked, “how can the nation’s largest news organization (AP), and the nation’s third-largest newspaper publisher (McClatchy), manage to screw things up so badly?”

I’m used to the secular media raking us over the coals but this one is ridiculous. Kudos to Bill Donohue and the Catholic League.