Framing Homosexuality and Pedophilia

This week has been terribly interesting to watch the story about sexual abuse and the Catholic church unfold (again).  What's interesting is how approved "talking heads" (and the media by sanctioning/allowing their viewpoints) have worked to frame the Catholic church's problem as not one of pedophilia, but as one of homosexuality.  In other words, the media is complicit in recycling misinformation by continuing to allow certain guests on their programs and, in large part, failing to correct the misinformation.  As the brilliant Pierre Bourdieu states in his work On Television, 

"There is a backstage process of shaping the group that ends up in the studio for the show, beginning with the preliminary decision about who gets invited and who doesn't... The set is there in front of viewers, and what they see hides what they don't see-- and what they don't  see in this constructed image, are the social conditions of its construction." (Bourdieu, 34)

But back to the matter at hand.  Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has been the major voice decrying (behind the cloak of a PhD in Sociology from New York University) that it's really homosexuality that is the problem, making the (insane) point that because the majority of the victims have been post-pubescent that it's homo sex, not pedophilia.  Before I explain why his argument is flawed, let's go to the tape:  

The first problem with this argument deals with the whole idea that somehow because the victims are post-pubescent that it is about homosexuality (or sex for that matter) rather than power.  As much as conservatives rail about the alleged "homosexual agenda" what is never discussed with as much disdain is the "anti homosexual agenda."  Anita Bryant famously mounted the repeal of a Florida ordinance prohibiting anti-gay discrimination based largely on the claim that gays (and gay men specifically) posed a predatory threat to children. 

The second is that is ignores the "age of consent" argument.  At best, one could claim that what the priests have done to their victims is statutory rape (which is as horrible as pedophilia).  Perhaps the argument is being made that there is a difference between the (mostly) men who Chris Hansen nabs on To Catch a Predator and pedophiles (and argument I wholeheartedly dismiss).  

Again, let's go to the tape:

But what is truly problematic is trying to make reinforce the idea that many people hold that pedophilia and homosexuality are analogous terms. And while some of the "experts" in the first video try to check him on his statement, Rick Sanchez  does nothing to try to assert that the claim is untrue that homosexuality = pedophilia.  (Perhaps it's his attempt to try to remain fair and balanced).  By linking the two and allowing people to say, "Most homosexuals are pedophiles" as a statement of fact is allow the message to be reinforced and subsequently gives many a platform from which to allow continued discrimination of all gay men and women.  And in the course of their "unbiased reporting" the media continues to be complicit in helping to reinforce this idea in the minds of the people who listen to, watch and read their constant reports.