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Friday, February 03, 2006
I can't recall an attack against ...   ... the West's free press so blatant or potentially consequential as that now underway at the hands of Muslim fanatics, or a time when the traditionally jealous-of-its-prerogatives press reacted so cravenly. The cartoons are news. To refuse to publish them is to refuse to tell the story and submit the matter of the alleged offense, and the Islamic response, to the consideration and judgement of the public the press claims to serve. To refuse to publish them is to refuse to be a news outlet. Why might one refuse? Nobody has said so, but I don't doubt that at least some editors are thinking ... "Geez, I got 4-people over there and those maniacs behead reporters like it's some kind of goddamn hobby they got." Well, yeah ... that is grounds for hesitation. But acceding to it reveals a fundamental misapprehension about what is afoot. It really is a war, it really is a hot war, and all of the West are participants — like it or not. Whatever editors and reporters might be telling themselves, they are the enemy so far as Islamists are concerned. Let's not forget this, either. There are thousands more media outlets that don't have staff over there than do. What's their excuse? The most common excuse is some simpering about how, wellllll, the cartoons are kind of insensitive. Yes, indeedy. Insensitivity and ridicule are the sine qua non of editorial cartooning. It was insensitive of American newspapers to portray Secretary of State Rice as Aunt Jemima. And that perennial favorite, Dick Cheney pulling the strings of George Bush the Marionette, is insensitive, too. And every editor in the land puffs himself up as though he just got his Special Forces wings when he publishes one of them. "But ... Mohammed is a religious figure, and that's, you know, a special sensitivity." Oh? Why so? Modern man has traveled to the moon. Modern man changes-out body organs. Modern man is tinkering with the innards of DNA molecules — and modern man should tippy-toe around the superstitions of primitives who behead heritics and hanker after a restoration of the "glory" of the 600's? Nothing is driving current events, domestically or abroad, so strongly as religious fanaticism. Containing religious extremism, domestically and abroad, is shaping-up to be the big problem facing humanity. And religious ideas and figures aren't subject to scrutiny or, when deserved, ridicule? Have we really so little moral and intellectual confidence as that? Pul-leeze! Bob Felton www.CivilCommotion.com The Intersection of Religion, Law, and Politics Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Bob Felton at 6:25 PM |
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1 Comments:
Well said.
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