Three Part Story first appeared in March 2009, then the L.A. Archdiocese got me fired from Examiner and my work there disappeared. Thanks to Bishop Accountability I was able to retrieve it from their archives. First here is Part One. Part Two begins below at the picture of Cardinal Roger Mahony surrounded by his thug bodyguards.
As Church Attorney Spoke, I Wrote in My Notes, Not True Lies Eloquent Lies
By Kay Ebeling
Examiner, March 6, 2009
"The documents weren’t public because they weren’t introduced at trial,” is one of many proclamations of Donald Steier, attorney for all the Catholic priests who were accused in the L.A. Clergy Cases which lobbed through the civil court system in 2007. In those cases 510 plaintiffs who were raped as children by Catholic priests around Los Angeles shared, along with the attorneys, a settlement of $660 million, in an agreement knocked out the night before the first jury trial was to begin. The plaintiffs were ready to go to trial, it was the Cardinal Roger Mahony's attorneys who stopped things the night before trial.
Now the church tries to use the lack of a trial as an argument to deny a major part of the settlements, the release of priest personnel files and other documents that likely show collusion and other crimes at a heirarchy level in the L.A. Catholic Archdiocese.
To me the amount of the settlement and the readiness of the Church to pay the settlements in July 2007 shows the lawsuits were telling the truth. The Archdiocese revealed the truth in the allegations against the priests and their bosses, the bishops and cardinals, by paying out the $660 million settlement.
"Still Donald Steier files motion after motion, speaks over and over at more and more hearings about how unfair this whole process has been to the perpetrator priests."
In Los Angeles this week, plaintiffs got over what was likely the last hump in the saga of getting the files released as promised as part of the settlement. It was a deal made between attorneys and judges behind closed doors, like a plea bargain, the way of justice in the USA today. The details were worked out in the hours before the July 16, 2007, settlement hearing.
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| Pic is Cardinal Mahony's eyes |
I have notes from that hearing, I was there in the front row, I saw Cardinal Mahony’s spangly 12 inch diamond jangled cross that dangles in front of his converse bony chest. He wore the necklace to the settlement hearing to accessorize a breezy black pantsuit.
A lot of attention in court this week was spent discussing what was said at that hearing July 16th, so after I write these posts about the hearing, and finish my other job tomorrow, I’ll go find that file and see what they're talking about.
"As eloquent as he is, as Donald Steier spoke I kept putting in my notes, “not true” “a lie” “I know this is not true.” Still he was allowed to speak on. For example "
STEIER: These documents weren’t public because they weren’t introduced at trial, they were part of discovery. Discovery exchanges are normally not public until introduced into evidence.”
“NOT TRUE” shows up in my notes here, because since 2007, I have been looking at evidence that was brought out in discovery in Room 106 of the Superior Court Building on Hill Street. The testimonies at depositions, the exhibits, or at least a list of the exhibits, are often in the public documents. So what is Steier saying here?
Judge Emilie Elias said,: “Well it’s a deal they made.“ with a tone in her voice, I thought, like, “Hey, man, get over it.” But I live in the ghetto, I could be wrong. . . .
In the hearing this morning, Donald Steier, defense attorney for accused predator priests all over southern California, said: There’s no word for what to do in a case like we're in, where the cases were dismissed,” and Steier displayed something I have said for a while now, concerning these clergy cases.
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| Pic is Cardinal Mahony's mouth |
There is no law currently written to handle pedophile priest rape cases, because the crimes are so heinous legislators never conceived of them before. So it will take new law, creative lawyering, to resolve these issues.
“It’s never happened this way before,” Steier pronounced. “We can’t just include it in the settlement agreement, the cases are long since dismissed.”
Here is more from the hearing Thursday March 5th in Dept 308 Los Angeles Superior Court, the big silver tall building at the corner of 6th Street and Commonwealth.,
STEIER: Now, I could finish or go on.
JUDGE: Just finish-
STEIER: Okay well my clients are accused as perpetrators, molesters. A category of terrible people. That's a foundation they need to prove to set my clients apart from everybody else. Your court clerk wouldn’t have to turn over his personnel files.
(Steier is trying to say here that these priests, the accusations against whom were so credible they got through the same bottomless wallet worth of determination to dismiss, through the years of the L.A. lawsuits, from 2003 to 2007 and yet the Los Angeles Archdiocese, in the end, paid out $660 million dollars because of these priests, that these priests are all innocent, wrongly accused just normal nice guys?
Mr. Steier, Don’t you think a $660 million dollar settlement that concerns priests makes them more likely to be guilty of accusations against them than the court clerk who is just sitting there?
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| Don't blame me for how nasty is this cartoon, I found it on Google, just a sample of what is out there. |
(I mean the fact there was a settlement proves that the allegations against these priests were VERY credible, they SURVIVED the church financed scrutiny and attack for years.)
The priests in question ARE perpetrator priests.
The hearing continued, but then all of a sudden the tone changed. They started talking about having the accused priests come in and testify in front of the public and in front of the judge.
"I got real excited and wrote in my notes, heck yes I want to see these guys come in and go on trial. Let's go..."
Continued next post, probably in the afternoon as I have to work my other job tomorrow morning.
Goodnight, folks
PART 2
(Pictured left: LA Cardinal Roger Mahony, whose archdiocese pays Steier's fees, never goes out in public without being surrounded by thugs who guard him.)Pt. 2: When Donald Steier speaks in Court the rest of the attorneys squirm, the judge scowls, people observing begin to fidget. I know from the document diving I’ve done that Steier is repeating himself and repeating himself, as well as putting forth ludicrous arguments. Steier is the attorney who represents priests accused of sex crimes all over the state of California and probably other countries.
““It says parties have to do it, not the lawyers,” Steier knit picked to our astonishment. “It doesn't say anywhere in the law that lawyers can file for the plaintiffs for continued jurisdiction,” said in a hearing Thursday. So since attorneys filed and not the plaintiffs themselves, they “didn't file the request for continued jurisdiction (or release of files to a referee judge for review) the way it’s written in the law.”
The mouth of everyone in Court dropped as he spoke, but the judge reminds us to hush, he has the right to speak, (I believe, in order to file for an appeal later.) So we all had to sit and listen.
In court Thursday, Steier went on: “Now from Mr. DeMarco’s secret archives he’s given you a copy of whatever he’s got that's from the parties."
Ludicrous arguments plus a slap in the face. If I were Tony DeMarco, I would file sanctions against Steier, although I've seen Steier do this before, and he gets slapped with sanctions and SO WHAT. His legal bills are paid by the L.A. Archdiocese, he can file false motions and make scurrilous claims in court, get sanctioned, and pay out thousands of dollars as a result, and not even feel it.
The Catholic L.A. Archdiocese pays his legal bills.
He can be sanctioned endlessly, he does not feel it.
Still, attorneys in civil court are supposed to be, well, civil. Accusing DeMarco of having secret files is as bad as the metaphor Steier put our earlier in that hearing, (written about in previous post here) where Steier said giving the public access to files the archdiocese has on pedophile priests is the same as releasing personnel files of any employee of the County, including the court clerk sitting in front of him, who I think would have gotten up and busted Steier in the chops if he wasn’t also trained in the civility of civil court. These files the plaintiffs asked to have released and the archdiocese agreed to release as part of the July 2007 settlement will likely reveal more criminal activity in the archdiocese, as happened when Boston finally released personnel files in 2002. The public has a right to know, as does law enforcement from the national US Attorney’s offices down.
Let’s pick up where we left off last post:
STEIER: I could finish or go on-
JUDGE EMILIE ELIAS: Just finish-
STEIER: Okay well there’s this issue of the indispensable party. The archdiocese is simply the custodian. No way my clients’ rights won’t be impaired by a decision.
DEMARCO: We’ll give them the same rights as they're entitled to in discovery.
STEIER: The problem is discovery terminates when case dismissed (back to that again) blah-blah-blah blah-blah-blah blah-blah-blah this isn’t really discovery blah-blah-blah blah-blah-blah blah-blah-blah It’s a remedy trying to be obtained.
ME: There he goes again repeating ludicrous arguments, that the plaintiffs’ cases were dismissed so there is no extended jurisdiction even though extended jurisdiction papers were lodged with the court and signed by all parties at the time of the settlement, it doesn't matter because the jurisdiction just is not extended because I say so. That's basically his argument, because I say so. He should make a movie with Diane Keaton. It would be about as entertaining. )
Back to the hearing:
(I look at the clock. Steier has been talking now a good ten minutes.)
STEIER: That's Number one. Number two, as I understand what's being put forward by Mr. DeMarco, the reason my clients’ files can be released to the pubic as opposed to your clients’ files is Mine are accused as perpetrators, molesters, a category of terrible people. That's a foundation they need to prove to set my clients apart from everybody else."
My clients are accused as perpetrators, molesters, a category of terrible people. They need to prove to set my clients apart from everybody else
Then the tone of the courtroom started to change:
STEIER: The Only way to prove what plaintiffs are claiming about my clients is to call witnesses
(In the audience pews, we begin to buzz among ourselves:
Are we going to have a trial, or hearings, with the priests coming in to testify to their innocence?)
JUDGE: That's why the documents are turned over to a referee. We put the same order as in Clergy Two (San Diego cases). Your clients have a right to come in and make those arguments in court.
JUDGE: Your clients (the accused priests) have a right to come in and make those arguments in court
JUDGE: We're not opening any files to the public before a referee can look at them in respect to privacy rights. The test then will be the privacy rights versus balance in all privacy rights. I'm not going to address that, now. We are now turning it over to referee.
STEIER: Your honor, your footnote Six
JUDGE: (AUDIBLE SIGH)
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Having written about Catholic Church legal tactics for years, I'm understandably paranoid now of every institution or organization, and even plaintiff attorneys who represent the crime victims. Once you see the Catholic Church act like criminals, you lose all faith in organizations.
So then Tony DeMarco, Liaison Attorney for the 510 plaintiffs in the L.A. Clergy Cases got up in Court Thursday and said, “I lodged a copy of the fully executed settlement agreement with the court today, because Mr. Steier counsel for the accused wanted proof it had been executed and I prefer the Court look at it in camera and issue an order that the settlement was fully executed.”
I immediately became paranoid. I think I even wrote about it here.
I was thinking, oh no, this is collusion between the plaintiff attorneys and the church, there was something wrong with the settlement. Now the docs can't be released.
I ran a whole scenario in my head, in part from reading Donald Steier’s briefs in the weeks before the hearing March 5. I had the Archdiocese issuing the $660 million dollars to the plaintiffs and, at the same time, the court, plaintiff attorneys and their clients all in such a state of disarray that no one noticed that there had been no settlement agreement signed.
Now DeMarco wants to lodge the settlement agreement “in camera” so no one but the judge can see it? What kind of collusion is going on here, have all the attorneys from all sides all been plotting against us from the beginning?
So in a short conference after the hearing, I blurted out to DeMarco, “So tell me, Tony, why did the copy of the settlement agreement have to be lodged in camera?
"What's the secret?”
He looked at me through his goggle lenses, always serene at a layer inside him just above where he is steaming, (Everyone who deals with the church legally becomes internally angry.)
“Because, Kay," DeMarco seethted to me, "the settlement agreement has the signature of every plaintiff, with their full names and signatures.”
Oh now I get it. I became three feet tall. Embarrassed. My PTSD induced paranoia always embarrasses me when it wears off....
In Part 3 of this story, the Judge says:
"Counsel, counsel, let him finish." then. "I'll take it under submission until Monday when I get the third document."
By Kay Ebeling
Examiner
March 8, 2009
Originally published at Examiner dot com http://www.examiner.com/x-1960-LA-City-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m3d8-Attorney-representing-pedophile-priests-makes-jaws-drop-in-Superior-Court-last-week but then the LA Archdiocese got me fired from Examiner and the article disappeared.
Taken down here as well: http://www.examiner.com/x-1960-LA-City-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m3d5-Update-Priests-accused-as-pedophiles-want-their-day-in-court
PART 3:
This is version 1.0
Update: Priests Accused As Pedophiles Want Their Day in Court to Plead Their Case
By Kay Ebeling,
Examiner, March 5, 2009
The attorney for the priests is pushing for more delays and he may have pushed himself into a corner as a judge ordered most of the documents still under seal on pedophile priests to be sent to a referee judge for review at a hearing in L.A Superior Court today.
Now the Judge is asking Steier, if his priests claim they are wrongly accused, they can come before her and plead their cases, or in front of another judge, but they can have their day in court. Steier insists some of the priests in the 510 civil cases settled in 2007 want to claim they are really decent guys.
Problem is, if they are not guilty, why did the archdiocese pay out millions of dollars to the victims of their crimes in 2007? Steier has a tough case to prove, but that is no problem, the archdiocese pays his fees and they never run out of money, so he can talk and talk and file motions and file motions.
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I have to throw this post up faastAnd get to my TV job, finish that
And tonight I will put up a full report on the hearing today. But for now almost all the documents in question are going to the referee judge for his review in camera, to decide if it does deny them privacy rights to release the files to the public or not. If the priests in question object, you can expect more and more and more hearings on release of some files, and Donald Steier will get become smoother and smoother. He has gained 20 "smooth" points since first time I saw him in an LA courtroom during pretrial hearings in 2007.
You have to hand it to Donald Steier, who represents an indeterminate number of Catholic priests whose names he will not tell you. Somebody with deep pockets is paying his fees. Today in court, four attorneys sat at the front table, like worker bees, while Donald Steier kicked back at the third table, leaning.
Steier is joking with me and the other survivors in court today who were raped by priests he represents.
He's smooth, he can say what he wants anytime, manipulate the court system just by standing their orating, which is really what he does. The entity that pays his bills has a bottomless briefcase of cash they probably deliver to him on Fridays. Donald Steier can file motion after motion after motion.
The judge is scowling at him.Judge Elias is trying to Interrupt Steier and stop him, saying things like, "I don't find that disturbing," and, "It's a deal they made, exactly like the San Diego cases."
But then Donald Steier lifts his six foot something lanky legs and body out of his chair, towers over the courtroom, erects himself, and elocutes and elocutes.
He might have elocuted himself into a corner this time though. He keeps saying his priests have never had their day in court, because the 520 cases in Los Angeles were settled in Julyb 2007 without going to trial. The Catholic Church is playing this bait and switch game, first pushing for early settlement because they didn't want Cardinal Mahony to go on the stand, and now they're saying because there was no trial, the priests should not be able to have their names besmirched in public, with the release of files now in the archdiocese's possession that document the crimes of the priests and how they were handled by heierarchy.
So the judge and the plaintiffs all agreed that the priests should come to court, hold a hearing, and defend their honor, if that is necessary, and Donald Steier had to agree to it, because that was the end of his own logic.
So there may be hearings sometime in the future for accused pedophile priests from Clergy Cases 2007 to defend themselves in a public courtroom.
Stay tuned, it may be years, but it could happen.
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TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2009
Fired again: Examiner Dot Com bows to pressure from Church, eliminates my job as LA City Buzz
*
By Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Network
So here I am back at City of Angels again. After a post I put up April 29th-30th, the L.A. Archdiocese "General Counsel" contacted Examiner Dot Com and pressured them to remove me from their site. So far I have not been able to get a copy of that letter. But I was fired from Examiner Dot Com this afternoon. Oh well, that means:
City of Angels is Blog Back.
After getting a letter from a Church Attorney, Examiner Dot Com decided they also did not like my side quips and snide remarks and as a matter of fact, they don't approve of on any of the stories I wrote in the last few months. Examiner Los Angeles, which promotes stories such as "Actress Reveals Chubby Belly in Bikini" with pictures stolen from copyrighted sites, found my stories about criminals being sleezebags to be "not in line with our guidelines."
Meanwhile Monsignor Richard Loomis is still listed as Pastor of Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua Church in San Marino, pictured here, and Loomis was supposed to be the focus of the April 29 stories that got me fired. Loomis, when he was known asBrother Becket in the late 1960s, had one good enough allegation against him to be one of the priests named in the 510 civil cases settled against the Los Angeles Archdiocese July 2007.
Monsignor Loomis has been on "leave" for more than two years and no one at the church can say where he's gone, as I caught the nun saying on video that was posted with the April 29-30 post. Loomis is still listed as pastor of Sts. Felicitas & Perpetua Church in San Marino.
Unfortunately I got sidetracked and went on a rant about a nun at the church being dressed in a way that I felt was too provocative for a nun, when I wrote that April 29 and 30th post. I still think it was a genuine observation.
It seems nuns in that church have gone full circle from 30 years ago wearing a habit, to today wearing anything they find at Target, cropped short tight dresses that barely fit, no matter how revealing. Maybe I should not have actually used the word sl--ty to describe the way I think the nun looked, but to me that word was an accurate description of her outfit.
Plus it still bothers me very much that a nun dressed like that was spending time in that room behind the altar with the priests before Mass that day at Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua Church in San Marino. I stand by what I said, even though it got me fired.
A lot of kids were raped in those rooms behind altars in Catholic Churches. It's not like they are some kind of sanctuary or anything. . .
I will try to find out more about Richard Loomis aka Brother Becket. I am driven now to find out more about Loomis.
And it feels good to be back in this site writing again. This template is so much friendlier.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese provides security for Sts. Felicitas Church, I recognized the jackets the guards were wearing when I was there last month, and the L.A. Archdiocese is apparently behind the pressure to remove me from my L.A. City Buzz Examiner post.
Oh well, in the long run, this means I can put all my focus on stories here and our pursuit of justice as adult vicims of pedophile priest sex crimes. In the end I think I am better off here.
Although I will miss that extra $80 a month or so.
So
Yes
That means once again, I'm asking my readers to Click the PayPal button in the top left column and put cash on my Account.
To help pay for the work time and resources needed to produce -
Ta Da
City of Angels 5,
at
City of Angels Network
Now back in action
I am really proud of this site. And glad to be back.
Oh well, we'll have a new post here at City of Angels 5 within about two days. . .
- Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Network
PS: Been fired so many times, I start making plans for unemploiyment before it is even official:
I was already taking a break, when I got fired from Examiner Dot Com. Funny thing is, I was taking the break because I was considering moving the ongoing coverage of sex crimes in the Catholic Church back to City of Angels anyways.
The entire time I was at Examiner, I had to produce stories on other topics. As a result, in the last few months, I lost my momentum in the pursuit of truth concerning the epidemic of pedophilia in the Catholic Church.
It's good to be able to say that.
There was an epidemic of pedophilia in the Catholic Church and it has not been eradicated.
Instead they want to eradicate the crime victims.
Anyway, Examiner dot com was only paying me $3 to $4 dollars a day. Hardly worth being harrassed about my content. And harrassed about being too creative with my fonts. I mean...
So, I'm ba-a-a-ack
By Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Network
So here I am back at City of Angels again. After a post I put up April 29th-30th, the L.A. Archdiocese "General Counsel" contacted Examiner Dot Com and pressured them to remove me from their site. So far I have not been able to get a copy of that letter. But I was fired from Examiner Dot Com this afternoon. Oh well, that means:
City of Angels is Blog Back.
After getting a letter from a Church Attorney, Examiner Dot Com decided they also did not like my side quips and snide remarks and as a matter of fact, they don't approve of on any of the stories I wrote in the last few months. Examiner Los Angeles, which promotes stories such as "Actress Reveals Chubby Belly in Bikini" with pictures stolen from copyrighted sites, found my stories about criminals being sleezebags to be "not in line with our guidelines."
Meanwhile Monsignor Richard Loomis is still listed as Pastor of Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua Church in San Marino, pictured here, and Loomis was supposed to be the focus of the April 29 stories that got me fired. Loomis, when he was known asBrother Becket in the late 1960s, had one good enough allegation against him to be one of the priests named in the 510 civil cases settled against the Los Angeles Archdiocese July 2007.
Monsignor Loomis has been on "leave" for more than two years and no one at the church can say where he's gone, as I caught the nun saying on video that was posted with the April 29-30 post. Loomis is still listed as pastor of Sts. Felicitas & Perpetua Church in San Marino.
Unfortunately I got sidetracked and went on a rant about a nun at the church being dressed in a way that I felt was too provocative for a nun, when I wrote that April 29 and 30th post. I still think it was a genuine observation.
It seems nuns in that church have gone full circle from 30 years ago wearing a habit, to today wearing anything they find at Target, cropped short tight dresses that barely fit, no matter how revealing. Maybe I should not have actually used the word sl--ty to describe the way I think the nun looked, but to me that word was an accurate description of her outfit.
Plus it still bothers me very much that a nun dressed like that was spending time in that room behind the altar with the priests before Mass that day at Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua Church in San Marino. I stand by what I said, even though it got me fired.
A lot of kids were raped in those rooms behind altars in Catholic Churches. It's not like they are some kind of sanctuary or anything. . .
I will try to find out more about Richard Loomis aka Brother Becket. I am driven now to find out more about Loomis.
And it feels good to be back in this site writing again. This template is so much friendlier.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese provides security for Sts. Felicitas Church, I recognized the jackets the guards were wearing when I was there last month, and the L.A. Archdiocese is apparently behind the pressure to remove me from my L.A. City Buzz Examiner post.
Oh well, in the long run, this means I can put all my focus on stories here and our pursuit of justice as adult vicims of pedophile priest sex crimes. In the end I think I am better off here.
Although I will miss that extra $80 a month or so.
So
Yes
That means once again, I'm asking my readers to Click the PayPal button in the top left column and put cash on my Account.
To help pay for the work time and resources needed to produce -
Ta Da
City of Angels 5,
at
City of Angels Network
Now back in action
I am really proud of this site. And glad to be back.
Oh well, we'll have a new post here at City of Angels 5 within about two days. . .
- Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Network
PS: Been fired so many times, I start making plans for unemploiyment before it is even official:
I was already taking a break, when I got fired from Examiner Dot Com. Funny thing is, I was taking the break because I was considering moving the ongoing coverage of sex crimes in the Catholic Church back to City of Angels anyways.
The entire time I was at Examiner, I had to produce stories on other topics. As a result, in the last few months, I lost my momentum in the pursuit of truth concerning the epidemic of pedophilia in the Catholic Church.
It's good to be able to say that.
There was an epidemic of pedophilia in the Catholic Church and it has not been eradicated.
Instead they want to eradicate the crime victims.
Anyway, Examiner dot com was only paying me $3 to $4 dollars a day. Hardly worth being harrassed about my content. And harrassed about being too creative with my fonts. I mean...
So, I'm ba-a-a-ack
With Archdiocese lawyers lurking, no wonder mainstream reporters stop reporting about sex crimes in the Church
*
By Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Network
Examiner Caves to Catholic Church Lawyers and Fires Me, Part Two: If anyone still wonders if the Catholic Church uses its muscle to muzzle local news media, I am now living proof. The email Examiner Dot Com sent when they fired me opened with, “After reviewing the allegations brought forth by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles."
My editor didn't notice the "slander and defamation" in the April 29th stories in question until May 20th, after Examiner received a letter from the General Counsel of the L.A. Archdiocese, which I assume means Ms. Marge Graf. Funny thing is if she had just picked up the phone and called me and said, "Kay, that nun in San Marino is upset over what you said and crying in her Danish," I would have gladly removed the stories.
Instead, once again the Catholic Church rears its Mafioso-like head and applies muscle at the top, so one story about a nun’s outfit being the opposite of a modest habit was an excuse to get me fired from Examiner, thanks to yet another attorney working for Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles (pictured with one of his minions above).
I mean face it, hardly anyone ever says anything derogatory, inflammatory or funny in a nasty way about nuns in American media today.
Now I understand why Governor Keating quit the National Review Board fed up with the bishops’ Mafia style.
Now I understand why so many mainstream reporters stop reporting about pedophile priests.
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The L.A. Archdiocese pressuring Examiner to fire me - and succeeding -proves how much effort the Church puts into stifling true stories about its crimes. Makes you wonder what else the Church is hiding, what could be worse than what has been able to seep out so far? What could be worse than more than five thousand priests identified so far as sexual predators, just in years recent enough for victims to come forward?
How about Negligence and Fraud at a national - no international - level?
Now we know the Church DOES use its muscle to muzzle negative news reports
********************
Meanwhile I feel liberated now that I'm away from Examiner Dot Com, where not only was I totally on my own to find, track down, research, run all over town, and then write stories - but then I had to market them myself.
NOTE TO ANYONE thinking of becoming an Examiner.
The six months I was with them, every month it was “next month” that Examiner was going to start its national marketing campaign. After a while you realize their entire marketing campaign is you and each Examiner going out and finding readers, one at a time.
That's Examiner’s national marketing campaign, each writer goes out and finds readers.
One at a time.
Then you get paid one penny per click, so you have to go out and find a lot of readers to buy a sandwich.
When I wasn’t writing stories, I was trying to find news groups and blogs and other places to post links to the stories, so I could bring in readers more than one at a time, maybe five at a time, one after the other.
My coverage of sex crime coverups in the Catholic Church lost all its momentum.
I totally could not figure out who the audience was for pedophile priest rape stories at Examiner.
What kind of potential customers for advertisers could I bring in to this corporate journalism experiment in which I found myself trapped?!
With Pedophile Priest Rape Stories?????
So I became stifled.
I gut wrenched out the few stories I was able to write during the Examiner Dot Com period, unable to find my voice there. The stories then read exactly like that, like they were groaned out. Recently, putting together a collection of articles, I could not find anything I had posted at Examiner Dot Com good enough to put it in a portfolio.
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I thought here at Examiner we report what mainstream is afraid to report. Instead Examiner reports what will get it more advertisers.
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The biggest disappointment is I thought I was joining a 21st Century, forward thinking - give America what mainstream news media are too frightened to report - news organization.
Instead Examiner Dot Com turned out to be more corporatethan the L.A. Times Mirror AOL Turner CNN whatever it all is today. Examiner writers’ stories are only there to draw in advertisers.
That's why all the stories there are in a 6 point ugly gothic type. They really don't want people who come to Examiner Dot Com to read the articles, they want Examiners to draw in readers to the ads.
With ugly 6 point Arial type mandated for all Examiner stories!
No one wants to read that font, so the eye instead is drawn to the ads on the sides
Examiner uses that obvious graphic art trick - ugly masses of print - to draw readers away from the stories to the ads.
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The Joke is on the Church
I had already decided to quit Examiner Dot Com a week earlier, because they were on my case to start posting all my stories in 6 point Arial type, and because they were not doing any marketing at all at the corporate level, and I was beginning to feel like I was working for Ex Scam-iner in reality.
Lucky for all of us, The L.A. Archdiocese General Counsel wrote that letter to Examiner demanding my removal, revealing the Roger Mahony machine to be paranoid, unable to stand criticism, and lurking everywhere online ready to stifle freedom of speech -
Just hours before I was going to quit anyway.
Did anyone ever expect anything better from Roger Mahony?
More to come shortly...
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Don't forget the PayPal High Five campaign is ongoing.
Every few weeks or months or when you are moved, send $5 or higher through PayPal in the top left corner to keep City of Angels Network thriving...
By Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Network
Examiner Caves to Catholic Church Lawyers and Fires Me, Part Two: If anyone still wonders if the Catholic Church uses its muscle to muzzle local news media, I am now living proof. The email Examiner Dot Com sent when they fired me opened with, “After reviewing the allegations brought forth by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles."
My editor didn't notice the "slander and defamation" in the April 29th stories in question until May 20th, after Examiner received a letter from the General Counsel of the L.A. Archdiocese, which I assume means Ms. Marge Graf. Funny thing is if she had just picked up the phone and called me and said, "Kay, that nun in San Marino is upset over what you said and crying in her Danish," I would have gladly removed the stories.
Instead, once again the Catholic Church rears its Mafioso-like head and applies muscle at the top, so one story about a nun’s outfit being the opposite of a modest habit was an excuse to get me fired from Examiner, thanks to yet another attorney working for Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles (pictured with one of his minions above).
I mean face it, hardly anyone ever says anything derogatory, inflammatory or funny in a nasty way about nuns in American media today.
Now I understand why Governor Keating quit the National Review Board fed up with the bishops’ Mafia style.
Now I understand why so many mainstream reporters stop reporting about pedophile priests.
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The L.A. Archdiocese pressuring Examiner to fire me - and succeeding -proves how much effort the Church puts into stifling true stories about its crimes. Makes you wonder what else the Church is hiding, what could be worse than what has been able to seep out so far? What could be worse than more than five thousand priests identified so far as sexual predators, just in years recent enough for victims to come forward?
How about Negligence and Fraud at a national - no international - level?
Now we know the Church DOES use its muscle to muzzle negative news reports
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Meanwhile I feel liberated now that I'm away from Examiner Dot Com, where not only was I totally on my own to find, track down, research, run all over town, and then write stories - but then I had to market them myself.
NOTE TO ANYONE thinking of becoming an Examiner.
The six months I was with them, every month it was “next month” that Examiner was going to start its national marketing campaign. After a while you realize their entire marketing campaign is you and each Examiner going out and finding readers, one at a time.
That's Examiner’s national marketing campaign, each writer goes out and finds readers.
One at a time.
Then you get paid one penny per click, so you have to go out and find a lot of readers to buy a sandwich.
When I wasn’t writing stories, I was trying to find news groups and blogs and other places to post links to the stories, so I could bring in readers more than one at a time, maybe five at a time, one after the other.
My coverage of sex crime coverups in the Catholic Church lost all its momentum.
I totally could not figure out who the audience was for pedophile priest rape stories at Examiner.
What kind of potential customers for advertisers could I bring in to this corporate journalism experiment in which I found myself trapped?!
With Pedophile Priest Rape Stories?????
So I became stifled.
I gut wrenched out the few stories I was able to write during the Examiner Dot Com period, unable to find my voice there. The stories then read exactly like that, like they were groaned out. Recently, putting together a collection of articles, I could not find anything I had posted at Examiner Dot Com good enough to put it in a portfolio.
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I thought here at Examiner we report what mainstream is afraid to report. Instead Examiner reports what will get it more advertisers.
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The biggest disappointment is I thought I was joining a 21st Century, forward thinking - give America what mainstream news media are too frightened to report - news organization.
Instead Examiner Dot Com turned out to be more corporatethan the L.A. Times Mirror AOL Turner CNN whatever it all is today. Examiner writers’ stories are only there to draw in advertisers.
That's why all the stories there are in a 6 point ugly gothic type. They really don't want people who come to Examiner Dot Com to read the articles, they want Examiners to draw in readers to the ads.
With ugly 6 point Arial type mandated for all Examiner stories!
No one wants to read that font, so the eye instead is drawn to the ads on the sides
Examiner uses that obvious graphic art trick - ugly masses of print - to draw readers away from the stories to the ads.
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The Joke is on the Church
I had already decided to quit Examiner Dot Com a week earlier, because they were on my case to start posting all my stories in 6 point Arial type, and because they were not doing any marketing at all at the corporate level, and I was beginning to feel like I was working for Ex Scam-iner in reality.
Lucky for all of us, The L.A. Archdiocese General Counsel wrote that letter to Examiner demanding my removal, revealing the Roger Mahony machine to be paranoid, unable to stand criticism, and lurking everywhere online ready to stifle freedom of speech -
Just hours before I was going to quit anyway.
Did anyone ever expect anything better from Roger Mahony?
More to come shortly...
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