Miranda Devine Says Pell Is A Victim Of #HuntingCatholics & Is Gettin’ Shredded

By

Alex Bruce-Smith

Published

Earlier today, Cardinal George Pell was officially charged with “historic sex offences” and ordered to appear in a Melbourne Court.

It goes without saying that this is HUGE. Victoria Police have been investigating Cardinal Pell – Australia’s highest member of the Catholic Church, and the Vatican‘s #3 – for over a year. Pell has even vowed to return to Australia “as soon as possible” to clear his name, something he notably didn’t do when ordered to testify in front of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

And yet, News Corp columnist and consistent haver of bad takes Miranda Devine has declared these charges as nothing more than a distraction.

The likes of Devine and Andrew Bolt have spent the last year or so feverishly defending Pell against just about everything, propagating their deeply exhausting culture war and churning regular Daily Telegraph readers into fits of rage. 
So today’s take isn’t exactly surprising. But jfc, it’s one of her worst yet.
Here it is: according to Devine, the very serious charges laid against Pell are merely a “distraction” from Melbourne‘s apparent crime epidemic and are in fact an example of the left “hunting Catholics”.



It’s almost impossible to break down this staggeringly bad take, but let’s take a swing at it, shall we? Devine is implying here that Victorian Police Chief Graham Ashton has somehow invented charges against Pell in order to proliferate some kind of ‘witch hunt’ against Catholics at large.

Never mind that these charges have been laid after over a year of investigating. And never mind that if Pell were to be found guilty, that means there are victims and/or survivors of sexual abuse in Australia right now, who also deserve Devine’s compassion. No no – it’s the left and/or the media [delete as appropriate] “hunting Catholics”.

Based on Devine’s replies, it looks like she’s merely rooting for Pell to receive a fair trial and be allowed the presumption of innocence.

But that’s not what her tweet said. Her tweet implied that these charges are simply a “distraction from the crime epidemic [Ashton] is incapable of stopping”. What crime epidemic, exactly? Who knows. It’s a dog-whistle through-and-through, just as this one is (which Devine retweeted).



So here we are. Devine’s #1 cooked take. It should come as absolutely no surprise that Devine’s #HuntingCatholics is being shredded online.


And as ever, there were a few pisstakes.

Meanwhile, Pell has promised to return to Australia – if given the okay by his doctor – to defend himself against these charges in court.

He might be found guilty, he might not, but that’s absolutely how these charges are meant to be fucking handled, not in the tweets of Australia’s foulest right wing columnist.

Photo: News Corp.

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