NY Times Creates St. Rick Santorum (R-Pious)

Per my last post about the NY Times profile of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), here's another thing that shows just how far out of its way the paper went to soften this lunatic's image before his 2006 election.

The times printed this big photograph to tell us how much of a pious, holy, spiritual man Santorum supposedly is:


(Credit this solid site for picking up on this)

This was a clear effort to claim Santorum isn't the insensitive right-wing lunatic he appears to be. He is instead, the Times seems to say with this picture and this article, just a very devout man.

Yet, buried as an aside in the story, the Times admits "Santorum is not a reader of Scripture" and quotes him saying "I've never read the Bible cover to cover." There's no fault in that alone, of course. The Bible can be a very important guide to people's lives.

But there is a fault in a Senator setting up a Bible on his desk when the cameras come in so as to portray himself as having scripture (and not Big Money/right-wing politics) guide him and justify his fringe-right-wing policies - even as he quietly admits he actually doesn't read the Bible. That is the kind of faux staged religiousity that actually insults people who really do rely on the Bible for guidance.

But even worse than a Senator trying to slimily repackage himself is the newspaper that KNOWINGLY aided and abetted this farce. The Times prominently displayed this photograph, even though it's reporter was well aware the Bible was being used a prop in a maginificently and cynically staged act.