More examples of media hypocrisy courtesy of Andrew Sullivan:
"Thursday, CNN broadcast a story on how common anti-Semitic caricatures are in the Arab press and illustrated it with - you guessed it - one virulently anti-Semitic cartoon after another. As the segment concluded, Wolf Blitzer looked into the camera and piously explained that while CNN had decided as a matter of policy not to broadcast any image of Muhammad, telling the story of anti-Semitism in the Arab press required showing those caricatures. He didn't even blush," - Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times, today.
Rutten has a challenge to the mainstream media: will they avoid any images of the upcoming anti-Catholic movie, "The Da Vinci Code"? Of course, they won't. And, I might add, I hope they won't. Here's a bleg to readers: please keep your eyes open for media representations of objects or images blasphemous to strict Christians and Jews. Last week, for example, the cartoon series, "Drawn Together," depicted Jesus refusing to extend compassion for one of the characters and eventually puking. Have you heard of it? South Park has Jesus as one its regular characters, and a recent South Park episode portrayed a statue of the Virgin Mary, with blood exploding out of her [rectum] onto the face of the Pope.
So Fox won't portray tame images of Muhammad, but they will broadcast "Passion of the Christ II: Crucify This." Here's the full compendium of Jesus references on Family Guy. You wanna see Jesus turn water into "funk"?
Why is this hypocrisy? Because except for a few outlets and a number of blogs the media adamantly refuses to show the cartoon depictions of Muhammad that have stirred up turmoil around the world. They have no qualms about publishing degrading portrayals of Christ and the Virgin Mary in their news reports, but they're suddenly seized with multicultural sensitivity when it comes to a few banal drawings of the Islamic Prophet.
So much for liberal pieties about being willing to fight to the death for your right to be offensive. Those words are easy to utter as long as the danger is far away, but when it gets a little close the number of people on the left who really mean it shrinks to a close approximation of zero. The media should either refuse to participate in the gratuitous trashing of symbols sacred to all theistic religions, including Christianity, (our recommendation) or grow a spine, refuse to truckle to the threats of the Islamists, and show the cartoons.
Update: Michelle Malkin has more on the incomprehensible absurdity of the Islamic protestors here. You read this stuff and all you can do is shake your head that so many people can be so benighted.
