You've found Father McKenzie. But are you really looking for Eleanor Rigby?

Friday, September 01, 2006

SMH aggregating again

In a previous post I commented on the laziness of the Sydney Morning Herlad in referencing old news as if it were today's. Well, they're at it again:

THE Vatican has never been a fan of Harry Potter, but its chief exorcist
has gone one step further and condemned J. K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as
downright evil.

"Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness,
the devil," says Father Gabriele Amorth, the Pope's "caster-out of
demons".

The books contained numerous positive references to the satanic art,
falsely drawing a distinction between black and white magic, he told the Daily
Mail in London. In the same interview, Father Amorth said he was convinced that
Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler were possessed by the devil.


Note the use of the present tense regarding Father Amorth's statements. The apparent source? The UK's Daily Mail. Yet a cursory reading of the "offending" article reveals the datedness of The Sydney Morning Herald's material. The Daily Mail has the courtesy to oblige us with the WHEN, as well as the WHO and the WHAT of the story:

In the past Father Amorth has also spoken out against the Harry Potter
books, claiming that reading the novels of the teen wizard open children's minds
to dabbling with the occult and black magic.

Father Amorth, who is president of the International Association of
Exorcists, said of the JK Rowling books:"Behind Harry Potter hides the signature
of the king of the darkness, the devil."

He said that Rowling's books contain innumerable positive references to magic, "the satanic art" and added the books attempt to make a false distinction between black and white magic, when in fact, the distinction "does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil."



IN THE PAST. Get it? Like, say 2002? Or at least March 3, 2006, when the Sydney Morning Herald most recently published this material.

Good grief. At least take the effort to check if not acknowldge the ag of your source. Otherwise next we'll read that World War 2 has just ended, or that Neil Armstrong has only just stepped onto the surface of the moon.





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