Attn. Chris Satullo: The Cardinal’s Check Is In The Mail
Inky op-ed column refugee/current head cheese at WHYY Chris Satullo is annoyed. Spurred on by a liberal bumper sticker on the back of a Volvo, he’s annoyed at all of these “secular liberals” and how they’ve gotten so, so snooty when it comes to anyone involved in a (white, preferably Christ-based) organized religion. And on the face of it, well, yeah: Looking down one’s nose at anyone who has the gullibility/temerity to believe in something always does the looked-down-upon more favors than it does for you. And perhaps more than that, it’s just not very classy. If you’re looking to silence the argument of a believer, all you really need to do is point to things like facts or science.
But here is where Satullo’s “I’ve had enough of you self-righteous slaves to reason!” bit really starts to fall apart: He fails to acknowledge that, thanks to the handiwork of many of his fellow believers, facts don’t mean anything anymore. Where arguments once could have been settled by, you know, facts, everything is now the province of opinion. Which is awful. It is possible that we could all be in the process of becoming more stupid now than we’ve been in a long, long time, and while we all share some responsibility in that, lately, the God Squad has been carrying more than their share of the load. And not for nothing, they’ve been oppressing us non-believers since forever. So let me put this to Satullo, who in many ways is a reasonable man, in way that Jesus himself might have expressed it: It’s a bumper sticker. Grow the fuck up.
March 1st, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Thanks to Satullo’s ponderous, self-indulgent “musings” I am withholding donations to WHYY. Meansies, I know! They haz no money. But this guy is such a tool it gives me morning rage. (BTW: You’re welcome, WNYC!)
March 1st, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Between this and the “Let Nothing Ye Dismay” xmas readings..I’m disgusted and feel very much the same.
Agenda much?
March 1st, 2010 at 1:47 pm
“How many wars really were caused by religion, vs. being mayhem where good ol’ human bloodlust merely used religion as a cover?”
Um, Chris: Have you, like, read the Bible?
March 1st, 2010 at 1:57 pm
His snarky, smarmy knowing tone makes me want to pull my hair out– after I turn off the radio. We finally got rid of that awful prurient Brenda Jorett to get saddled with this close-minded nastiness?
This particular whine-a-thon was deliberately oblivious to the fact that there are no atheists elected to federal office (right? maybe one or two?), which, you know, if all these downtrodden believers were really such a small martyred part of the population, they would have very limited representation. Whereas the aetheists (of which I am not, I happen to be an extremely resentful ex-Catholic) have no representation. So who is really the ruling class, Mr. Satullo?
And while I see plenty of Christian bumper stickers in Philadelphia, I’m pretty sure that outside of cities and college towns, you will see almost nothing but Christian bumper stickers. Non-believers are surrounded by and under-seige from believers, not the other way around.
He could have easily done a editorial on how believers and non-believers alike should be more respectful of and open-to each other, but no, he went for the lowest common denominator just like he’s seemed to in almost every one of his editorials I have inadvertantly listened to.
He should grow up and cut the smarm and snark.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:03 pm
my favorite bumper sticker is ‘Pray for a Secular World’
March 1st, 2010 at 2:17 pm
The only thing Chris Satullo ever excelled at is his pompous ass persona. Like his predecessor his time running the editorial page of the Inquirer was filled with a uneventful musings and downright embarrassment. On WHYY’s mayor election coverage, Satullo slimed the entire city of Philadelphia without fact. He was part of a panel where everyone lived in the suburbs except for Elmer Smith.
What’s wrong with WHYY is what’s wrong with just about every media establishment and nearly every large business in this city. It’s run by white suburbanites for white suburbanites. I don’t know how to change this. Philebrity is certainly a start.
WHYY is an old, white, suburbanite country club and frankly I don’t see any reason to support it.
March 1st, 2010 at 3:38 pm
The real problem with WHYY is Bill Marrazzo. He takes a huge salary, hires numbskulls like Satullo and Jorett, develops local programs that are boring and fogey-focused, and underpays low-level employees while violating labor laws (long-term employees working two part-time jobs at WHYY that add up to more than 40 hours a week without getting overtime or health insurance, it’s utterly shameful).
I love public radio. I am a total public radio junkie. I want to contribute to the cost of public radio, but I don’t want a cent of my money going to Marrazzo and Satullo. The only way I can figure out how to do this is either to donate to stations in other cities, like Chicago and Boston, or to podcasts. It’s ridiculous.