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Wanted: Smut-Sniffing Professional

This is an actual job, posted on a major journalism employment web site.

Company: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Position: Media Reviewer

Location: Washington, D.C.

Description: The position screens and writes reviews of nationally-released movies (as many as 3-6 per week), determining, in tandem with director, the appropriate moral classification; likewise screens and reviews 1-2 TV programs and also 1-2 DVDs weekly. The Media Reviewer will write columns on media trends as warranted, records biweekly on-air feature for "Catholic Radio Weekly."

EOE M/F/D/V.

That last bit means "Male/Female/Disabled/Veteran". (I'm guessing "Non-Catholic" isn't a protected status in this case.)

I knew - from years of reading Mother Jones, The Nation and the New York Times - that jobs like this existed. Those and other left-leaning publications often include winking news briefs about social conservatives loudly and righteously complaining about smut in pop culture.

Often, though, it is revealed that the complainer - like, say, Catholic League President Bill Donohue - has never even seen the show or movie or heard the song about which he or she is railing. So when a guy like Donohue mounts his soapbox of ignorance, it's safe to assume that someone behind the scenes - someone with a job similar to the one mentioned above - fed him that information and told him to be outraged by it.

Curious about what those reviews say? The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has a web site where we can read them ourselves! Hooray!