NY Press staff walk out; refusal to print Danish cartoons

The New York Observer ^ | February 7, 2006 07:51 PM | Ben @ the NY Observer

[DesScorp]

Looks like some liberals are still committed to free speech.

[12B]

Alternative weekly

Is that kind of like an underground campus paper?

[Alexander Rubin]

Too few, sadly.

[Dark Skies]

I'm not familiar with that paper...but bravo to those who resigned!

[Eagles Talon IV]

Sure, the liberals are strong proponents of all the wonderful freedoms we enjoy in this nation...as long as they don't actually have to FIGHT for them

[Squint]

Looks like some liberals are still committed to free speech.

I'm sure there are many liberals who believe in free speech, just not the kind who get elected to office.

[EBH]

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.

It was worth repeating.

[MamaTexan]

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.

I fervently applaud these people and hope this story grows legs long enough to run like the wind!

WTG GUYS!

[No Blue States]

BTTT

[Coop]

I'm sure there are many liberals who believe in free speech, just not the kind who get elected to office.

Good point.

[auboy]

Meanwhile, the Washington Post has no problem publishing the "Battle Hardened" cartoon.

"We support free speech as long as we get to choose what is offensive."

[OpusatFR]

They did a really sickening piece of JPII, but I didn't Catholics torching their editor:

http://www.catholicleague.org/05press_releases/quarter%201/050303_NY%20Press.htm

"On the cover of the March 2-8 edition of the New York Press, a free New York weekly, there is a picture of Pope John Paul II. The story is titled, “THERE’S NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT THIS MAN DYING—OR IS THERE?” The story contains 52 of the most crude and vulgar jokes about the pope’s death. Here are a few examples:

Beetles eating Pope’s dead brains.

Gurgling sound during embalming process; real fluids in dead Pope’s body sucked out into jars.

Doctors examining the body discover that the Pope was not only a woman, but also Hitler.

Throw a marble at the dead Pope’s head. Bonk!"

I guess liberal's self-righteousness stops when self-interest meets Islam's threats.

[kabar]

The NYT, LA Times and the Boston Globe published the "Piss Christ" photograph in 1989.

[aquila48]

"Looks like some liberals are still committed to free speech."

...or finally waking up!

If anyone should be afraid of islam, it is they.

[Koblenz]

I know Jonathan Leaf and he's no liberal. He's a playwright (yeah, they still exist, but I am not sure I spelled it right), and he wrote a play about Pushkin. He actually made some money on a game show, and he became a former liberal after his experience in substitute teaching in the NYC school system. He's very bright, and very conservative.

[auboy]

Oh, but that was okay.

"Piss Christ" is fine. "Bombhead Mohammad" is taboo. If two faced was a fatal disease, hypocrites would be extinct.

[aculeus]

NYPress bump.

[watchin]

I listened to some liberal on NPR last night. He thought "tolerance" trumped free speech.

It was then that I realized that this issue will rip what's left of the democrats in half. They're being forced to choose between tolerance for anti-American values and the first amendment right to mock religion.

[Lizavetta]

At least some people have nardlies.

(testicles)

[AmericanDave]

Congrats for taking a stand ping.