Is the almighty free press here in the United States actually afraid to print the Muslim cartoons? Apparently, that’s what Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times thinks. In his weekly Saturday column this AM, with which I usually mostly disagree, Tim gets right to the meat of the matter this morning with Let’s be honest about cartoons.

THE editor of the Los Angeles Times does not think you need to see any of the cartoons that have triggered deadly riots across the Muslim world.
(…)
This paper has ample company. The New York Times, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and USA Today all have declined to run the cartoons because many Muslims find them offensive. The people who run Associated Press, NBC, CBS, CNN and National Public Radio’s website agree.

Gee Tim, neither does Hugh Hewitt, I mean publishing the cartoons again, ’cause they are all over the Internet available for anyone with the capacity to Google “Muslim cartoons” that is. But methinks there is a deep, non-stated reason for papers such as the LA Times, New York Times, et all, not printing them rather than simply not throwing more fuel on the fires of Islamic hatred. What say you?

Among those who decline to show the caricatures, only one, the Boston Phoenix, has been forthright enough to admit that its editors made the decision “out of fear of retaliation from the international brotherhood of radical and bloodthirsty Islamists who seek to impose their will on those who do not believe as they do.

There it is — the money quote! Hard to enjoy that weekend in Palm Springs with you on the chase lounge and your head on the ground beside you.

Then there’s the question of why there was no reaction whatsoever when Al Fagr, one of Egypt’s largest newspapers, published these cartoons on its front page Oct. 17 — that’s right, four months ago — during Ramadan. Apparently its editor, Adel Hamouda, isn’t as sensitive as his American colleagues.

Way to go, Tim. For some reason I hadn’t read about this printing before. No riots, no killings, no world-wide press coverage last Oct. Adds more punch to the thought that Iran, Syria and Hamas are using this to avoid their individual and collective woes, cause the regular Muslim world just didn’t give a you-know-what four short months ago now did they?

Read more from Tim as he tells the tale of Wolf Blitzer at CNN broadcasting vile anti-Semitic cartoons to show how widespread these are in the Middle East, but not showing the Mohammed cartoons out of respect for Islam. Jeez, what is up with self-loathing Jews, Wolf?

Also, the Gray Lady decided that it wouldn’t print the cartoons out of respect for Islam, but didn’t mind reprinting the Chris Ofili’s painting of the Virgin Mary using elephant dung as the media. Nice touch, Chris. Bet that stuff really flowed off the brush nice an’ smooth!

Tim even slams Sony and the press for the upcoming anti-Catholic movie of Dan Brown’s novel The DaVinci Code. An offended Catholic stating his displeasure — but don’t look for Tim to storm the studio gates over at Culver City to burn and pillage. We don’t do that here, now do we? We just all get along, right? Then Rutten wraps it up with:

Until that glorious day, those of us who inhabit this real world will continue to believe that the American news media’s current exercise in mass self-censorship has nothing to do with either sensitivity or restraint and everything to do with timidity and expediency.

You got that right, Rutten. The MSM in America, or most of it, are afraid the big bad radical Muslims will make them scream like little girls — just before they hack off their heads!

So much for the courage, power and independence of the free American press . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: Tim Rutten, Muslim cartoons, Chris Ofili, Los Angeles Times

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 11th, 2006 at 10:03 am and is filed under Dhimmitude, Media Doin' It Wrong, Muslim Cartoon War, Radical Islam, Religion & Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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