Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update

* Anders Fogh Rasmussen becomes NATO's new secretary-general on Monday. That move had been in doubt at one time, and a very modest contributing reason among many more important ones was the perception of Rasmussen's actions during the Danish Cartoons Controversy.

* this article places new violence in Nigeria in a context that includes over 100 DCC-related deaths back in 2006.

* finally, it seems the Danish Cartoons are a major subject in Bruce Bawer's new book about appeasing radical Islam, reviewed here in the Times. If the characterization of Bawer's argument is accurate, I'd like to reiterate my longstanding take that one may criticize the publication of the original cartoons and not back down one bit from a defense of free speech.

I continue to feel that the original publication of the cartoons was a stunt designed to press an issue rather than a natural outcome of journalistic enterprise. At best -- at best -- this was intended to instigate a dialogue that then got away from the Jyllands-Posten editors in the worst way possible, somehow allowing a handful of agitators to vastly outstrip and outperform a group of media professionals in shaping public opinion on a specific action instigated by those media professionals. They should have the right to publish whatever they want without fear of violent reprisal, but that doesn't make that particular move smart, meaningful, insightful, to the point or any positive value ascribed to it as it has become smaller and smaller in the rear view window. Nor does it necessarily become a more honorable or necessary act as several of those criticizing it have been revealed to be manipulative, free-speech hating, murderous douchebags.

Further, I feel no compunction to provide whatever it is writers mean when they say "support" for the original stunt or its instigators beyond reiterating their absolute right to have done this without that fear of reprisal. It's not in failing to somehow vaguely reach out to the original journalists that the world press failed but in the staggering number of cases where publication after publication lacked the will to provide readers and watchers with crucial information that could only be had by reprinting the cartoons, no matter how personally distasteful or scary. I am sick to the bottom of my balls that every issue with political ramifications these days seems to end up debated in terms of one being a good teammate with the rest of your fellows on the right side of things as opposed to the value of adhering to the principles at stake no matter where your feet may fall.
 
posted 8:10 am PST | Permalink
 

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