Friday, February 03, 2006

On MSM and the cartoons: This Prof has it right

Cori Dauber is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies (and of Peace, War, and Defense) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She blogs at Rantingprogs.Today she posts, And Then There Are Those Choosing to Fold.

If we were debating the wisdom of printing cartoons offensive to a religious group, and that were the only issue on the table, that would be one thing, but as soon as violence is threatened, and the government of a liberal democracy is pressured to bring a free press to heel, then the nature of the debate changes, fairly dramatically.

Then it is all about those who value a free press standing up.

Or, in the case of CNN, sitting down.

Yes, trying not of offend through responsible journalism is a nice thing.

Right up until people think that threatening violence and kidnappings are a way to stop the press. Then the press must demonstrate that such threats do not work.

We aren't talking about kiddie porn here, and although the press keeps talking over and over and over about the fact that one cartoon showed Mohammed with a bomb for a turban, most of the cartoons were not demeaning "caricatures" or attempts to offend through sarcastic renditions, they were nothing more than cartoonists' renditions. (Of course, CNN doesn't really have a history of standing up against the demands of Arab governments.)

ABC, by the way, noted that frightened Europeans were leaving Gaza, but didn't bother to mention that was due to specific threats -- to kidnap Europeans -- not their own paranoia.

And meanwhile, while we all celebrated the bravery of the French paper that stood in solidarity with the Danes and the rights of a secular society, the paper's editor got sacked.

Again, I can fully understand why Muslims would be offended by these cartoons. There have been several artistic (more like "artistic") images of late targeting Christianity that I was none too fond of. The issue now, however, has moved far beyond the wisdom of printing the cartoons originally. The issue now is how an offended community should respond, and how we should respond when a free press is threatened.

Because make no mistake, when mass violence is threatened against the press, when pressure is placed against governments to get them to pressure the press, when economic pressure is brought to bear, then at the very least there has to be a tremendous fear that self-censorship with result the next time, not just at the publication where this started, but at every publication, at the very least in Europe. The situation is intolerable. Because if these publications do not stand up now there is the risk that coverage of any issue sensitive to the Muslim community may start to be trimmed.
Dauber has a lot more to say here. It's worth reading.

A few of my thoughts:


Self-censorship at a newspaper in and of itself is not necessarily bad. What's being censored and why need to be weighed.

To engage in an economic boycott, singly or by a group, is an important right all of us should have. So GM no longer advertises in the LA Times. Maybe the LA Times will change; maybe it won't. Well, that's democracy. If Muslims want to boycott Danish products they should be as free to do that as Americans should be to boycott French products.

But physical violence or its threat directed at the press is intolerable in a democracy. We must all stand against that. And MSM news organizations should join with us by demonstating they're not intimidated. Publish those cartoons, WaPo, CNN, NYT and the rest.

Readers, what do you think?

Dauber's post is here.

Hat Tip: Mike Williams

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was listening on NPR to some prof (of Iranian extraction - probably literally since he's not in, you know, Iran) talk about how mortally offensive it was, that we needed calm, and engagement, etc, etc.

I wanted to call and ask him exactly what his reaction to the "Piss Christ" controversy was.

Or to the Toles cartoon, more topically.

-AC

Anonymous said...

We're going to get clarification very quickly as to who values true freedom of the press and who doesn't. There was never any question that this day would come. Is it too much to hope that this is the fatal blow to political correctness?