Los Angeles Archdiocese's Sex Scandal Settlement

Professor Bainbridge had this to say about it:

A plague on both their houses. I have no great love for LA Archbishop Roger Cardinal Mahoney (see, e.g., Mahony Must Go). His mishandling of sex abuse by priests is a true scandal.

At the same time, I have no great love for the LA Times. The Times' reporting on the recent $660 million settlement between the Archdiocese and 508 alleged victims is a classic example of the shoddy way the Times has covered this whole tragedy. For example, the Times claims each victim will receive an average of $1.3 million, which is what you get if you divide $660 million by 508. But what about attorney's fees? Plaintiffs lawyers typically walk away with 40% of a settlement as their contingent fee, plus they get reimbursed for all of their expenses out of the settlement. It'd be very surprising if the victims saw 50% of the settlement.

Second, the Times quotes an Archdiocese spokesman as saying that ""Parish assets will not be touched, and the mission of the church will be impacted but not crippled." Yet, the Times story makes no effort - zero, nada, zilch - to determine the ways in which the church's mission will be impacted.

Obviously, Bainbridge has some strong feelings about the issue.  This was the most recent L.A. Times article to which he was referring.