COMMENTARY: NY Times' Double Standard on Religion Violates Freedom of the Press

The New York Times last week published an ad purchased by an atheist organization titled "It's Time to Consider Quitting The Catholic Church."

But when another organization tried to buy a similar ad against Islam, the newspaper refused to publish it, thus illustrating that The York Times has a double standard on religion.

The Times published the anti-Catholic ad -- purchased by the atheistic Freedom From Religion Foundation -- which challenged Roman Catholic beliefs and pointed to the church's past sex scandals, among other things, as reasons for Catholics to leave their church.

On the other hand, The Times did not publish an ad that Pamela Geller -- president of Stop Islamization of Nations -- tried to have published titled "It's Time To Quit Islam."

It is a sad day for America's freedom of the press when the nation's third largest circulating daily newspaper -- after The Wall Street Journal and USA Today -- decides it is unfit to publish one religious ad, even though it just published another religious ad that was very similar.

Ironically, The New York Times is violating its own long-standing motto of "All the news that's fit to print" by printing an ad criticizing one religion, but refusing to print another ad criticizing another religion.

The fact is that The New York Times -- as a result of its discriminatory and biased policy in this situation -- has now been stigmatized and has lost the respect it once commanded from a plethora of Americans.

Indeed, it will take many years before The New York Times can possibly regain the respect it previously had for being an objective and unbiased newspaper, as it circulates in our great freedom-loving nation.

Then, again, The New York Times may never regain that respect!