So they annoy the whole world with the “war on terror”, daily for 15 years…
…but they won’t publish the caricatures that just had a whole team of journalists executed by terrorists in the middle of a western capital.
This really is a sad day for journalism ; today terrorists won.
I was just thinking about this. Quite strange especially the subdued response from Britain which has recently positioned itself as a champion of free speech given their prime ministers recent comments in response to Russia.
Not a fan of the French but in this case, well played :
agree. the day we give in, is the day liberty dies.
Shocker that British press have no backbone. Slimy bastards.
after 7/7 and Lee Rigby I think they’re playing it safe.
Infowars nailed it on this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vIb8siiSio
I think the images by FT of the author with magazine photo cropped out are massively disrespectful to him. All the fuss over “the interview” and all the US hype about “defending our freedom”, but when the rubber hits the road all of the sudden it’s so quiet in the media. I have to respect the French on this one.
http://www.infowars.com/media-censoring-muhammad-cartoons-amid-paris-shooting/
It all makes me think of an exchange between a US and North Korean officer following the war:
When Harry told him, “You know, you never beat us on the battlefield,” Colonel Tu responded, “That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.”
We have always been so focused on scoring military victories. Widespread publication of these images is a good way to “win the war” on this issue without firing a shot despite their violent actions.
How does it help win the war?
Well that depends on how you see “the war”. It’s always useful to remember that the armed conflict is not the issue, but merely a secondary physical manifestation, or proxy, of the root conflict. In WWI, the root conflict was a layered structure of political and nationalist tensions. The military conflict was just the offspring of failed policy. We went out there and won the good ol’ war and then in our hubris got narrowminded and forgot that war =/= root conflict. We assumed that meant everything was done and solved (which it wasn’t) and sure enough we had to go back for round 2. After the second one, we did not make the same mistake and helped repair tensions and rebuild relationships and thus solve the root problem.
In Korea we essentially lost the conflict without losing a battle because “the war” was about political control which we did not resolve, and the battles are merely associated armed conflicts.
In the war on terror, the root of the conflict has been the recent widespread rise of threat of shocking violence by extremists as a tool to enforce an ideological platform on majorities in their own countries or foreign populations. The military conflict is simply a secondary outspringing of that issue. We can avoid the mistake we made in WWI and Korea by not losing sight of that by restricting our view of the conflict to a military one through getting tunnel vision once we’ve made the decision to deploy troops overseas. So in this case, eliminating a major flash point in the freedom of speech theater (drawing mohammad) by widespread dissemination of drawings would help to force some level of acceptance on the extremists. Once the genie is so far out of the bottle that the pictures are everywhere there are no singular targets and you’ve reduced them to a futile fight against a force as irreversable as gravity. Once you’ve gained that key foothold, further smaller steps will prove marginally less difficult. All without firing a shot.
I must have woke up on the right side of the bed today because I am far less pissy than usual. Must just be early, I’ll come around.
It doesn’t seem shameful to not publish the caricature, alongside your name and work address, to be read by millions of people, when the people who published the same thing were just gunned down in their office. We could say that it would be laudable if they did publish the caricature, but it’s not fair to fault individuals who do not want to take what they perceive to be a risk.
^ I agree with Ohai. And to whoever said the British are free speech champions… Seriously?
Yeah, it’s important to keep in mind that the age of journalists being anything more than lobbyist paid slime blogging updates on the Kardashians has long since passed. Expecting anything more from them such as integrity does seem unfair at this point.
It’s a profession of English lit majors from daddy’s liberal art school that largely exists on the bedrock of the first ammendment. As such they’re much more accustom to sending, then criticizing, troops to defend the freedoms they rely on than sprouting a backbone.
Britain has a more nuanced approach to freedom of speech…
That would be me and yes, seriously.
Case in point : the hacking scandal last year.
Britain censors all sorts of stuff and media and government are way too cozy there. Bad example for a free speech champion, IMO. The government there even tells you what you can get off on, just in case you see something indecent.
I heard an executive director of a TV network earlier this evening say he decided not to show the pictures because of religious sensitivities. It’s not always easy to find a balance between tolerance and free expression.
care to provide any sources or examples?
The recent extreme porn and indecent images legislation is an attempt to stop people viewing things that may lead them to commit a crime, eg rape porn.
Bizarre fact, did you know that Japan only made possession of child pornography illegal in 2014. fucked up.
IMO it would be possible to publish them without naming a single journalist.
+1
Anybody who says “you guys ought to stand up for what’s right, even if it means getting killed”, you need to put your money where your mouth is.
And I will proudly say that if I were the publisher of a magazine or newspaper, I would not allow cartoons that might get my employees killed. That’s not cowardice. That’s just being responsible.
^ But employees can choose not to work there. They’ve been at this a LONG time, no one’s holding them hostage to continue making those comics
I do in every way I can, social media, etc. Give me more avenues with which to do it and I would. I would just remind any adversary that intends to pass my triple bolt door and do harm that on the other side there’s a guy with 25 odd years of firearms experience holding a Noveske and wearing a vest. 'Murica.