Posted on 02/08/2006 12:27:33 AM PST by BCrago66
The editorial staff of the alternative weekly New York Press walked out today, en masse, after the paper's publishers backed down from printing the Danish cartoons that have become the center of a global free-speech fight.
Editor-in-Chief Harry Siegel emails, on behalf of the editorial staff:
New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization. Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group—consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editorJonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions.
We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and France for having run these cartoons. We have no illusions about the power of the Press (NY Press, we mean), but even on the far margins of the world-historical stage, we are not willing to side with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a free press not least among them.
This was not an easy decision. I've been reading the Press since 1988 and have dreamed of running it for nearly as long. The paper's editorial staff has worked impossibly hard hours and has come quite a ways in only a few months towards restoring the paper's tarnished editorial reputation and credibility. I'm proud of the work we've done, and wish we'd had time to finish the job. I wish the Press all the best, and hope that under new ownership and leadership it can again be an invaluable read for all good Gothamites.
Sounds like another dying gasp from the antique press.
well I'm not in the loop here but haven't they taken a brave step?
Good for them. It's OK for the MSM to demean the US Troops week after week with the Abu Grabit (sp. intentional) headlines, but twelve measly cartoons depicting Mohammad in a poor light of which three were purposefully put in by a radical imam is disgusting. The newspaper could have made a nice story about that using those three pictures.
These papers only have the guts to slam Republicans and not much else.
They have taken a brave step. I'd like to project a light image of the cartoons on the New York embassies of some of these Islamo-freak nations. The protests are not spontaneous; they are state-sponsored.
That would be a refreshing change. And I admire the use of the otherwise absent spine. It would be nice if this was a permanent shift towards responsible, truthful journalism, respect and support for the nation you live in, and support for the nation's leader and his efforts to put an end to terrorism sponsored by the Islamic fundamentalism which is now treading on the powers and freedom of the press. Until now, media has done everything to support the enemy of freedom, and covered up the brutality and intent of it . Now that you are recieving the "reward" for the effort, I hope it opens more eyes in the industry as to what we are really dealing with in this world.
vimto, having read your posts for about a week or so. i am wondering when you are going to emigrate to the usa. we would welcome you.
Personally I would ignore the cartoons, and just show a picture of the jackasses burning down buildings, threatening to kill people, and some actually do such.
That is a compliment of the highest order ...
I remain in the UK due to the need to care for elderly parents. Other wise I would seek to go. Not that I hate my homeland - far from it - it is beautiful, but I increasingly feel like a fish out of water.
kind regards
see, i knew i called your personality right. excellent of you to take care of your parents. this is gods command. i know you dont hate your homeland, i think very few, very very few people hate their homelands. problem is that fewer and fewer places even give the semblance of sanity.
I was thinking the same after watching some journalist guy on the Abrams Report today, who actually said the media was acting responsibly and had a duty to not publish things that could inflame or cause anger in times of war.
I guess those Abu Grabit pics didn't incite any anger in the Muslim world then. Typical hypocrisy from the MSM.
The owners would fire those publishers, but they need the eggs. Bpuck-bpuck-pbuck-bedaaaaack!
One of the more absurd moments in this fiasco was a GB official (Jack Straw, I think) lauding Fleet Street for its sensitivity when it cowered. That is something like citing the World Wrestling Federation for elegance.
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