Catholic issues looming over that Patrick Clancy interview

Was there a, a religion ghost in that 60 Minutes piece when Ross Douthat talked with Patrick Clancy about losing his children?

Well, the candle reference and the cathedral reference certainly points to religious content.

I think the really interesting question about this interview is whether Clancy's own religious beliefs, which have been discussed in some other settings and some other coverage in the past, whether or not that was a topic that they agreed, for several reasons we can discuss, that they agreed not to talk about.

But I think it's very definite, if you know anything about the work of Ross Douthat, you know that Ross would have, under normal circumstances, have asked questions about religious faith in this.

I mean, on one very blunt level, one of the things that makes this interview remarkable in mainstream television is you have one Catholic dad at the level of The New York Times and CBS Evening News, and 60 Minutes, I should say.

You have one Catholic dad sitting, interviewing another Catholic dad who has been caught, horribly caught, in the hell of a personal story that became one of the biggest national stories around.

So you can talk about this thing on a journalism level, and I, I'm frankly more comfortable keeping it there because I don't know how I would've handled an interview with this man.

But I can also assure listeners that there had to have been talks and negotiations before the interview about what they could discuss and what they couldn't, and I think religion would've been a part of that for one reason, that it's legal and rather complicated.

But there also could, and I stress could, be a personal element there that, in a way, is quite touching.

Um, so yes, I think there was a religion ghost in this story, and at the same time, yes, I can understand journalistically and personally why religion wasn't explicitly discussed in this case.

So I'm wondering, do we know whether or not it may had also, may also have been the result of, of editing? These interviews are often very long.

Yeah.

And v- you know, they ha- they only have a certain amount of time to air the interview.

Sometimes if I, if memory serves, sometimes they will publish the longer version of a shorter broadcast interview.

But, you know, Ross Douthat's new to 60 Minutes.

He may not, he may not have the kind of muscle to say, "I want that question included." He may have editors and producers that say, "No, we're gonna cut that question."

Well, I mean, first of all, this was not one interview.

I have not seen the short version that ran on 60 Minutes.

I have only watched the longer version of the interview that has been posted online, so I don't know the differences between the two.

But it's obvious that we have an interview with Clancy, at least one in the same setting.

Then we have another interview with Clancy in which his new wife is present, and then we have another interview where he's back in Massachusetts, where they film some footage related to his family and his time there, and you have that interview sitting out on a park bench in a park where he's done some tributes to his children.

And so we have at least three different interviews here.

So it's not a classic sit-down with a politician And run from the first minute to the last.

It's not that kind of an interview.

It's not Donald Trump on Joe Rogan, you know, in one setting, in one stream.