Imagine:
Posted on 01/03/2003 1:29:32 PM PST by Alouette
Political writer Bill Cotterell has been suspended from the Tallahassee Democrat for offensive e-mail remarks to a reader, Executive Editor John Winn Miller announced Thursday.
The one-week suspension without pay lasts until next Friday, Miller said.
In a statement, Miller said: "On behalf of the Tallahassee Democrat, I apologize to all of our readers, and most especially, to readers and members of the Islamic faith everywhere, for the intemperate e-mail comments of political writer/columnist Bill Cotterell. They absolutely do not represent the views and sensitivities of this newspaper. Worse, they run counter to many of the values we hold dearest, among them tolerance, diversity and inclusiveness."
Cotterell, a veteran reporter with 35 years in the news business, also apologized, saying that his comments were "grossly inappropriate."
Cotterell's e-mail responded to a reader upset with a cartoon by Doug Marlette that many thought was insulting to Muslims. The cartoon appeared briefly on the Democrat's Web site but was not published in the paper.
In his response, Cotterell criticized most Arab nations for not "getting over" the creation of Israel and making peace.
"OK, they can squat around the camel-dung fire and grumble about it, or they can put their bottoms in the air five times a day and pray for deliverance; that's their business," Cotterell wrote in his e-mail. "And I don't give a damn if Israel kills a few in collateral damage while defending itself. So be it."
His private e-mail was forwarded to the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and posted on its Web site. That prompted hundreds of e-mails and phone calls of protest to the Democrat about his remarks.
"Any journalist has a right to his or her political and religious views, but when those views are expressed in such bigoted terms, it raises questions about a media outlet's journalistic balance and objectivity," CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement posted to ISLAM-INFONET, an e-mail list-serv moderated by CAIR.
Cotterell said that although he was responding to a reader who had offended him with her comments, "I should not have used disrespectful and insulting language in responding to her. I should not have become personally provoked."
What's the problem here? Are they complaining about the fact that they are too poor to own camels, and certainly can't afford dung?
Or, because they actual stick up their bottoms only FOUR times a day?
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