Mary Kenny – FAIL!

If Mary Kenny is a journalist, I am a brass rooster collector. (And I promise you, I’m not a brass rooster collector.) I didn’t think it was possible to get every single fact wrong in an article, but reading through Kenny’s latest piece in the Irish Independent is like playing a game of “spot the error”. I honestly think there’s one in every line, and it’s not a short piece:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/atheist-bus-more-like-a-bandwagon–on-highway-to-hell-1550742.html

But it’s not just Kenny’s errors which are startling – it’s the way she attempts to equate atheism with all that is wrong with the UK, including child abuse, unforgivably using the tragic case of Baby P to generate emotion with no relevant context (Kenny has no evidence to suggest that his killers didn’t believe in God, or that their religious beliefs (or lack of them) were a factor in the case in any way).

In addition, Mary Kenny is a Roman Catholic, so she’s on very shaky ground indeed when writing about any link between religion and child abuse. Catholic priests, anyone? Magdalene Laundries? Kenny seriously believes the world would be a better place if we all believed in God. 9/11, Mary? Iraq? The Middle East? The Balkans? Northern Ireland?

You can write a letter to the editor of the Irish Independent here:

independent.letters {at} independent(.)ie

Here’s one from an atheist:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/so-whos-really-intolerant-mary-1552011.html

Tags: Atheists, Facts, Inaccuracy, Irish Independent, Journalism, Mary Kenny, Morality, Roman Catholics

24 comments 25.11.08