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William J. Bennett and Alan M. Dershowitz take newspapers to task in a column in the Wshington Post, February 23, 2006, headlined A Failure of the Press. They write:

To our knowledge, only three print newspapers have followed their true calling: the Austin American-Statesman, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Sun. What have they done? They simply printed cartoons that were at the center of widespread turmoil among Muslims over depictions of the prophet Muhammad. These papers did their duty.

Here is our newspaper's history:

Taking offense at offense ran in the Rome (NY) Sentinel on February 2, 2006.
Buy Danish ran in the Rome (NY) Sentinel on February 2, 2006.
Those Danish cartoons ran in the Rome (NY) Sentinel on February 8, 2006.
Supporting Swedish Freedomfinally posted the Danish cartoons on the publisher's blog on February 10, 2006, when Swedish websites with the cartoons began to be shut down.

Contrary to Bennett and Dershowitz, the cartoons did not have to be published. The right to publish the cartoons was at issue, not the necessity. Trust Bennett, who professes virtue, but does not understand it, and Dershowitz, who professes liberalism, but does not understand it, to join forces to misrepresent evil, and what constitutes capitulation to it.

Bennett and Dershowitz conclude, "What we never imagined was that the free press -- an institution at the heart of those virtues and freedoms -- would be among the first to surrender."

Bullfeathers. The freedom to offend does not imply the necessity. A supporting corollary is that one need peel off only enough layers from the velvet glove towards the iron fist to make one's point.

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This page was last updated: Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 3:12:20 PM
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