The Herald also apologizes

By: Mark Fitzgerald Miami Herald Publisher Alberto Ibarg?en apologized to Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora Dec. 8 for a full-page religious ad that angered the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Headlined "The Earth's Final Warning," the Dec. 1 ad in the Herald and its sibling El Nuevo Herald used biblical citations to argue that the Roman Catholic Church was the "beast" and "whore of Babylon" prophesied in the book of Revelation. It was placed by the Eternal Gospel Church of the Seventh-Day Adventists, a church with about 150 members in West Palm Beach, Fla. The ad was also published in The Dallas Morning News, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and, last summer, in USA Today.
"I also find the advertisement anti-Catholic and offensive," Ibarg?en wrote Favalora. "As such, it is in contravention of our existing advertising policies, and our business office should not have accepted them for publication. On behalf of both of our newspapers, I apologize to you, to Catholics, and to our readers."
Catholic League President William Donohue said publishers have been very responsive to his complaints about the ads. Nevertheless, he added, "Despicable though the 'Earth's Final Warning' ads are, they are not half as disturbing as the decision of newspaper advertising executives to run them. It is not likely that the Klan would find space in a mainstream American newspaper, and the same should be true of the Eternal Gospel Church of the Seventh-Day Adventists."
Reached by phone, Eternal Gospel Church Pastor Raphael Perez said the Herald's action shows "the power of the Catholic Church."
"Instead of answering the newspaper ads, they try to compare us to the Ku Klux Klan," Perez said. "I say, 'Why don't you answer back with your own message in the media, using your own Bible and your own sources?'"

(Editor & Publisher Web Site: http://www.mediainfo.com) [Caption]
(copyright: Editor & Publisher December 18, 1999) [Caption]