Media Cowardice And The Mohammad Cartoons

Jeff Jacoby argues the media is afraid to run the cartoons, and Captain's Quarters agrees.

I don't. I don't imagine that many publishers or editors actually fear a molotov cocktail being tossed through their living room window.

I've said this before, but...

It's simply a matter of leftist, "anti-colonialist" bias. American, Western, and above all else Christian institutions should be mocked and undermined, the media's thinking goes, in order to reduce the colonialist hegemony of these structures.

On the other hand, foreign and non-Christian institutions and beliefs are due the greatest amount of respect, because, well, they're non-American, non-Western, and non-Christian. They should be promoted and exhalted, because they represent an alternative and a challenge to the despised Western/Christian traditions.

Newspapermen jump to insult Christianity by running photos of Andre Serrano's "Piss Christ." But when it comes to insulting the Muslim faith, suddenly the watchwords are "respect" and "avoiding giving offense."

Note that in the Piss Christ controversy, the question was whether the state should fund such offensive artwork, and if it should be displayed at state-subsidized museums.

In the Muslim Cartoon wars, the question is whether private entities (US media organizations) should report the "best evidence" regarding the catalyst for an enormous foreign policy story, and one with an ever-growing bodycount.

The media protests that it's not necessary to run these photos to report on the story; that people can imagine what the cartoons look like without actually seeing them displayed in the media. Well, the same could have been said about "Piss Christ" -- it's a crucifix in a glass container of urine, for crying out loud; pretty easily described, no? -- and yet they didn't mind offending millions of Christians by running that schock-schlock "art."

And further-- does the public really understand just how banal and inoffensive most of these "offensive" cartoons really are?

posted by Ace at 01:59 PM

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