***scroll for updates***

Read this CNN report very carefully:

The international storm over cartoon drawings of the Prophet Mohammad published in European media gathered pace across the Islamic world Thursday with angry demonstrations and the shutting down of the EU office in Gaza City.

In Paris, the daily newspaper France Soir fired its managing editor after it republished the caricatures Wednesday, and in Pakistan protesters marched chanting "Death to Denmark" and "Death to France."

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying the cartoons -- one depicting the founder of Islam wearing a turban resembling a bomb --showed press freedom should have its limits.

Muslims consider it sacrilegious to produce a likeness of the Prophet Mohammad. CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons in respect for Islam.

Unbelievable. The news network reports on an international controversy, but refuses to show readers what the news is actually about and let them judge the cartoons for themselves.

Even more galling is CNN's newfound respect for religion.

Where was that deference when Ted Turner was calling Catholics "Jesus Freaks?"

Where was the sensitivity about offensive religious imagery when Jeanne Moos was mocking images of Jesus Christ or Jonathan Mann was reporting on the Virgin Mary covered in dung?

Why is it that American media, including CNN, have absolutely no qualms about splashing Kanye West-as-Christ all over the airwaves and Internet...

...but can't bring themselves to print the Forbidden Cartoons gallery (now available in thumbnail and full-size images over at Human Events Online, which is also running the photos with my column this week):

Reader Jake G. e-mails that NBC Nightly News tonight also refused to show the cartoons:

Just when I thought NBC might have had a moment of clarity (HA! Yeah, right!), I heard them tease a story on this for the Nightly News tonight. In the middle of the segment, the dropped the ball completely, refusing to show the cartoons! They made some weak statement about how they decided against airing the images out of respect for Muslims.

This from the network that showed no respect for Christians when it forged ahead with the religion-mocking show, "The Book of Daniel."

This from the network that plans to feature Britney Spears as the host of a fictional cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's" in an upcoming "Will & Grace" epsiode:

NBC announced this week that pop star Britney Spears would make a guest appearance on the gay-oriented sitcom [Will & Grace] as a Christian conservative hired as a talk show sidekick to the gay character Jack played by series regular Sean Hayes.

In the episode, scheduled to air on April 13, Jack's fictional TV network is bought by a Christian broadcaster, leading Spears' character to do an Easter cooking segment on Jack's show called "Cruci-fixin's."

The American Family Association immediately raised objections to the planned episode, saying it "mocks the crucifixion of Christ" and will "further denigrate Christianity" by airing the night before Good Friday.

And see this.

"Out of respect" for Islam and Muslims?

No.

Out of fear.

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I've uploaded the idiotic NBC News segment that reports on the cartoons, "which we've chosen not to show," intones correspondent Dawna Friesen.

Download and watch the video (.wmv file -6.4MB).

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Check out the new Faces of Muhammad blog. (Hat tip: My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy)

Rod Dreher: Mohammed cartoon row grows

The blogger at Secular Blasphemy has received a death threat for blogging about the forbidden cartoons.

Meanwhile, still no word from the MSM on how Islamists faked cartoons and attributed them to the Danes (noted here this a.m.) to inflame the Arab world. More on this from Lorenzo Vidino at The Counterterrorism Blog.

1015pm EST. The New York Times covers the story on the web tonight (for tomorrow's print edition), but has no room to link to or print the cartoons.

Excellent commentary tonight from Dr. Sanity, who writes about the Highway to Hell:

Just as the false promises of socialism and communism were found to lead to misery instead of happiness; poverty instead of wealth; enslavement instead of freedom--so too, have multiculturalism and political correctness, instead of harmony, brought lethal discord.

There can be no backing down now; because to compromise on this would be disaster--in every way the beginning of the end of our own values, freedoms, and culture. Besides, it is compromise that has brought us to this unbelievable situation in the first place.

The very first time we allowed the adherents of a medieval and primitive religion to believe that their feelings about that religion trump all the values of western civiliztion; the minute we began to apologize for our successes and make excuses--or even blame ourselves--for their failures; we were bound to come to this place...

Wretchard at The Belmont Club also has trenchant analysis, as always, on the continuing cartoon crisis and its much, much larger repercussions. Go read.

1100pm EST. The top Technorati search is "jyllands-posten mohammed."

Technorati tag: Buy Danish

Judith Apter Klinghoffer: "Does the American MSM know the meaning of solidarity?" An excerpt:

Danish cartoonists need 24 hour protection. Another bounty was put on them today. The Le Monde cartoonist responds by drawing a portrait of Muhammad is entirely made up of lines saying "I must not draw Muhammad."

What do American cartoonist do? Well, The one working for the Washington Post draws the American army as a critically wounded soldier who lost both hands and legs. The Islamists could not have asked for anything more. Didn't Bin Laden and company assure them that one more push and the US will collapse just as the USSR did?

The Danish PM Fogh was on arab television today, the interviewer asked him: "Please explain to us: why haven't you yet punished the newspapermen?" A second editor is fired. This time it is Jihad El Momeni, a Jordanian editor, who keeps alive the hope of moderate Islam. In an editorial accompanying the cartoons he asks:

"What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"

Reader John S. reports that ABC's Nightline bucked the MSM trend and showed some of the cartoons:

It was done very matter-of-factly. While Cynthia McFadden talked about the ruckus, video of the nutjob protests in Gaza was shown followed by the cartoons. The three most offensive ones were shown up close and described.

More: The LA Times has an article on the forbidden cartoons, but not the forbidden cartoons themselves. Same deal at the Washington Post. Ditto Time magazine. The Dominion Post, a New Zealand paper, is set to run the artwork.

2/3/06 8am EST morning update. A reader reports: "The BBC News segment carried by the Albuquerque PBS affiliate KNME showed at least a few of the cartoons, including the bomb turban, as did the PBS News Hour." Fox News Channel's Brit Hume also aired some of the artwork. As did ABC News.

Information just wants to be free.

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Previous:

Support Denmark...and Piglet!
In search of a brave American newspaper (updated)
First, they came for the cartoonists
Fight the bullies of Islam
Support Denmark: Why the forbidden cartoons matter
The cartoons Islamists don't want you to see
The forbidden cartoons

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