Cartoon violence
The recent furor over European cartoons satirizing Mohammed is a good example of how the media has become political, regardless of protestations to the contrary. Not there's anything wrong with political representations by newspapers, as long is it's identified as such, say by labeling it an editorial cartoon or something similar.
There's a line, though. A divider where it's no longer about politics but becomes a hate crime. From what I know of these cartoons, that doesn't seem to be the case. The point is satire. One cartoon supposedly portrayed Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban. If the point is that a lot of violence is being perpetrated by Muslims for supposedly religous reasons, who really wants to disagree with that? It's rare that you hear about Jehovah's Witnesses even carrying a gun, let alone using one for ideological purposes.
No, it doesn't disturb me that these cartoons were published. I haven't seen them, though, so I reserve judgement.
What does annoy me is not that they were published, it's that I can't see them. American newspapers appear to be deliberately not showing them. That bothers me, because they're worried about retribution, which means that violent protests to control the media does, in fact, work.
I'd like to believe that our media is made of sterner stuff than that. Yes sir, I'd like to believe that.
Posted on February 06, 2006
