US Catholic Bishops Office Backs Efforts to Gag Conservative Radio Hosts for “Hate Speech”

Speaking for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has stated that a religious coalition, which recently petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clamp down on “hate speech” by conservative talk-show hosts, has misrepresented the U.S. bishops’ involvement in their initiative. The USCCB Office of Communications is listed as a member of the So We Might See Coalition, a group billing itself as a national interfaith coalition against hate speech in media led by the United Church of Christ’s (UCC) Office of Communications’ Executive Director, J. Bennett Guess. The USCCB drew fire from conservative and Catholic commentators after the So We Might See Coalition launched a petition to the FCC, signed by the USCCB, that called for an investigation into “hate speech” in media and that singled out conservative radio pundit Rush Limbaugh as a primary culprit.