New York Observer
February 7, 2006
NY Press Kills Cartoons; Staff Walks Out
By Ben Smith
The editorial staff of the alternative weekly New York Press walked out
today, en masse, after the paper's publishers backed down from printing
the Danish cartoons that have become the center of a global free-speech
fight.
Editor-in-Chief Harry Siegel emails, on behalf of the editorial staff:
New York Press, like so many other publications,
has suborned its own professed principles. For
all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New
York Sun locally and two other papers nationally
have mustered the minimal courage needed to print
simple and not especially offensive editorial
cartoons that have been used as a pretext for
great and greatly menacing violence directed
against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian
aid workers, diplomats and others who represent
the basic values and obligations of Western
civilization.
Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the
now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated
to them, the editorial group -- consisting of myself,
managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editor Jonathan
Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose
instead to resign our positions.
We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it
would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the
same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running,
cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson,
kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at
least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have
already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and
France for having run these cartoons. We have no
illusions about the power of the Press (NY Press,
we mean), but even on the far margins of the
world-historical stage, we are not willing to side
with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a
free press not least among them.
This was not an easy decision. I've been reading the
Press since 1988 and have dreamed of running it for
nearly as long. The paper's editorial staff has
worked impossibly hard hours and has come quite a
ways in only a few months towards restoring the
paper's tarnished editorial reputation and
credibility. I'm proud of the work we've done, and
wish we'd had time to finish the job. I wish the
Press all the best, and hope that under new ownership
and leadership it can again be an invaluable read
for all good Gothamites.
http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2006/02/ny-press-kills-cartoons-staff-walks-out.html
Compare to the cowards at the NY Times:
The New York Times
February 7, 2006
Those Danish Cartoons
By THE EDITORS
Cartoons making fun of the Prophet Muhammad that were published in a
Danish newspaper last September are suddenly one of the hottest issues
in international politics. Muslims in Europe and across the Middle East
have been holding protests with growing levels of violence and now loss
of life.
....
The New York Times and much of the rest of the nation's news media have
reported on the cartoons but refrained from showing them. That seems a
reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from
gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons
are so easy to describe in words.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/opinion/07tue2.html
See also CNN, the Coward News Network:
Feb 2: "Storm grows over Mohammad cartoons"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/02/cartoons.wrap
"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons in respect for Islam."
Feb 3: "Muslim anger on cartoons spreads"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/03/cartoon.wrap.reut
"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam."
Feb 4: "Cartoon row: Danish embassy ablaze"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/04/syria.cartoon.ap
"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam."
Feb 5: "Protesters burn consulate over cartoons"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/05/cartoon.protests
"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam."
Feb 6: "Cartoon protests turn deadly"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/06/cartoon.protests"
"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam."
Feb 6: "Danes feel threatened in cartoon row"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/denmark.cartoons
"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam."
Feb 6: "London protest: Calls for arrests"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/london.cartoon.protests
"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam."
Feb 7: "EU warns Iran on Danish boycott"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/07/cartoon.denmarktrade
"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam."
Cartoon artwork here:
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/sarticle.php?id=12146
http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive
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