Saturday, March 04, 2006
I finally got around to sending this email to the Kitsap Sun:
Laura Schuck’s February 16 column, No Good Reason to Reprint Danish Cartoons, ignores or misrepresents several valid reasons for legitimate news outlets to do so. It also gives specious reasons not to, and smugly affects an attitude of moral superiority toward journalists that are actually doing their jobs. Much of the persistent violence surrounding this issue is the direct result of people thinking that the actual cartoons are worse than they really are, never having seen them. The distinction between the real cartoons and fraudulent ones used by agitating clerics to intentionally worsen and prolong the riots could be made more clearly by reprinting the originals.
If the (non-Koranic) prohibition against picturing Mohammed is to be extended to non-Muslims (contrary to millennia of western tradition that holds people subject only to the prohibitions of religions they voluntarily subscribe to), then a terrible precedent is set by the passive acquiescence of the western media, and a worse one by pretending that this craven omission is the duty of all responsible journalists.
Offering moral support to an ally in an ongoing war is yet another valid reason for The Stranger to have made the choice it did. Readers wishing to oppose the boycott of Danish products may start by visiting the following website: http://buydanish.home.comcast.net
The best reason for newspapers to reprint the cartoons is simply that they are newspapers. The originals can be viewed here: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/sarticle.php?id=12146
Dave Munger
Laura Schuck’s February 16 column, No Good Reason to Reprint Danish Cartoons, ignores or misrepresents several valid reasons for legitimate news outlets to do so. It also gives specious reasons not to, and smugly affects an attitude of moral superiority toward journalists that are actually doing their jobs. Much of the persistent violence surrounding this issue is the direct result of people thinking that the actual cartoons are worse than they really are, never having seen them. The distinction between the real cartoons and fraudulent ones used by agitating clerics to intentionally worsen and prolong the riots could be made more clearly by reprinting the originals.
If the (non-Koranic) prohibition against picturing Mohammed is to be extended to non-Muslims (contrary to millennia of western tradition that holds people subject only to the prohibitions of religions they voluntarily subscribe to), then a terrible precedent is set by the passive acquiescence of the western media, and a worse one by pretending that this craven omission is the duty of all responsible journalists.
Offering moral support to an ally in an ongoing war is yet another valid reason for The Stranger to have made the choice it did. Readers wishing to oppose the boycott of Danish products may start by visiting the following website: http://buydanish.home.comcast.net
The best reason for newspapers to reprint the cartoons is simply that they are newspapers. The originals can be viewed here: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/sarticle.php?id=12146
Dave Munger
