Posted on 02/08/2006 6:49:09 PM PST by dervish
The editorial staff of the New York independent weekly NY Press have quit their jobs en masse after the paper's PTB decided that they were not going to publish the Danish cartoons which sparked the Global Cartoon Riots.
Editor Harry Siegel, e-mailed the publishers on behalf of the staff, writing in part:
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 editor Jonathan 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.
BTTT
No fear that anyone at the NY Times or the Washington Post will quit over their refusal to treat this issue.
Neither newspaper hesitated to print pictues of Abu Ghraib, knowing full well that those pictures would incite Muslims to riot, kidnap, and kill westerners in the Middle East.
But their own precious hides were safe. Marx forbid that they should risk their own precious hides or come to the aid of our civilization, when they would prefer to undermine it.
Hear, Hear!
Everybody who publishes is a victim of these damn riots. Even people on the internet are threatened. It's completely reprehensible.
That's right. And once they see how we can be manipulated by this they will up the ante and riot over other things. Imagine these street people finding out they have power over even the great and powerful NYT. It's like giving in to the street bully when he demands 25 cents. Next week its 50. This should be nipped in the bud now and these people told we will print whatever we feel like.
Media Cowards. They can dish it out but they can't take it. They're nothing but a bunch of "Ding Dong Ditchers"!
Who knew all we needed to do to get the media back in line was for the people to rise up and rebel. Who knew?
Table turning.
Very pleasant - and very refreshing - to note someone, at least, in this country with a pair. Too bad it had to be demonstrated in this particular way; too bad, also, that other editors, and the cookie pushers at the State Department, don't exhibit this level of integrity.
Speaking of cookies, I think I'll have some made-in-Denmark Danish cookies now. Whatever's rotten in the state of Denmark today is mostly wearing towels on its heads.
BUMP.
Newsweak and other publications have even published "fake but accurate" allegations of abuse (including the report of the koran being flushed and porn site photos as evidence of troops raping Iraqis) knowing that these would make things harder for our troops.
I'm also reminded of the feminazi who complained about how the US was "raping" the middle east in ths war for oil or some such leftist talking point. By the time that rant got translated to Turkish (or was it Pakistani) there were riots and people dead. Words have weight. Never has bothered the American Left.
Always said that they were useful idiots who served the enemy as propagandists in word and deed. Done deal now.
LOL
Do Burqas come in sizes?
Dhimmi small, medium and large.
Good for them! Its surprising to see anyone associated with the MSM standing on real principals - the kind that cost you something.
LOL!
The NY Press is a generally offensive little rag, devoted mostly to bashing Bush and spreading the glories of homosexuality, but I definitely have to give these editors high marks for courage (especially the one who has what I assume to be a Persian name) and consistency.
The major newspapers are terrified.
Wonderful cartoon!
Did anyone else watch O'Reilly yesterday on FOX? He pointed out that The New York Times, among others (but particularly the NYT) has printed and recentl as a day or so ago REPRINTED the image of the Virgin Mary surrounded by sha'ite while refusing otherwise to reprint the "Danish cartoons" with the excuse that they didn't "want to offend" anyone's "religion."
The New York Times firmly now establishes it's place among the world's terrorists. If it's anything to do with Christianity and/or Orthodox Judaism, the NYT will terrorize it. If it's something that might make muslims go even crazier than they already are (my opinion), then the NYT wants to be "sensitive" and to "not offend."
I think that these journalists resigned is a very significant and brave thing for them to do, in reference to the precise reasons why they have resigned. This is not a small or slight thing and that (some in) media are withholding publishing the Danish cartoons is stupifying. It's not "sensitive" that they are withholding their reprint, it's downright compliant with terrorist demands and threats.
The cartoons are not THAT offensive. From what I viewed elsewhere, there are by far more offenisve cartoons drawn by muslims about the rest of us...like Sharon eating Palestinian children, like planes flying into the World Trade Towers and blowing up "infidels" among others.
What is offensive to reasonable people is NOT reprinting the Danish cartoons, in my view and lending muslim outrage any more credibility than it surely does not merit otherwise.
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