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Detroit (ChurchMilitant.com) - Big media is up in arms over the growing influence of Church Militant.

In the wake of an article February 19 on "Church Militant" by the Detroit Free Press titled "How a Right-Wing Ferndale Fringe Group Is Building a Multimedia Empire," MSN.com posted a video Monday asking: "Is 'Church Militant' the next right-wing media empire?"



USA Today carried the article by Detroit Free Press in its Sunday paper, and its author Robert Allen notes, "Church Militant broadcasts ... orthodox Catholic news on its website churchmilitant.com and through social media, using high-tech, professional production studios that rival those at local TV news stations."

President and founder of the organization, Michael Voris — with more more than 25 years of professional news experience under his belt — knows how things are supposed to look in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Having worked for affiliates of Fox News and CBS, Voris has a broad background in studio production. His four Emmy awards for investigative journalism are testimony to his ability to hunt down and produce impressive investigative pieces.

Voris pours this talent and experience into Church Militant on a daily basis — a main reason for its continued growth and success. He notes that the tax-exempt non-profit is first and foremost an apostolate, having as its goal the salvation of souls. It must also fit into the template of a news outfit by necessity, he adds. Last year, St. Michael's Media took in $2.186 million but spent $2.159 million in the process (TV production is an expensive business). With a $27,000 difference, no one is getting wealthy in the process.

The MSN.com video makes the claim that members of Church Militant "adore Trump." Voris denies stumping for Trump during the presidential election.

"We were warning Catholics that Hillary Clinton was a threat to faithful Catholics as evidenced by her speech in 2015 where she warned that 'religious beliefs ... have to be changed,'" the senior executive producer said.

He further noted that this threat was further made known by a series of Wikileaks emails, exposing communications by Clinton's campaign chief, John Podesta. These exposed emails showed an agenda by Clintonites to subvert the Catholic faith by using false Catholic groups like Catholic United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Alerting Catholics to this danger was Voris' main concern.

The recent rash of news coverage by big media started with a hit piece on Church Militant by the New York Times on December 30. That article — "Church Militant Theology Is Put to New and Politicized Use" — tried in vain to tie the organization to Steve Bannon, President Trump's chief strategist.

A futile effort was similarly made February 11 by Huffington Post in an article titled "Bannon Wants a War and He Will Use Jesus to Get One." Church Militant has repeatedly made clear to both organizations that Steve Bannon's use of the spiritual term "The Church Militant" — signifying Christians on earth waging spiritual battle for souls — is not an endorsement of the legal corporation known by a similar name.

It seems that "fake news" has shifted from the groundless assertion that Bannon is somehow associated with Church Militant and is now more concerned about the strides the organization is making in the arena of public opinion. How big the organization will become is now the main question.