Breaking the Taboo

Michelle Malkin tried to get Fox News Channel to cover the Comic Jihad but got comic results—the network (2% owned by a Saudi prince), cut away from the shot as Michelle held up a poster board with the Taboo Twelve. Read the rest at the link above, and follow the link to the video.

The MSM is at an important threshold here. In the past it has covered controversies involving Christians and imagery by showing the imagery in question and reporting on the story surrounding it. But so far few newspapers and no networks have shown the Comic Jihad images for more than a few seconds and without pixellating them like they’re p0rn. It’s a ridiculous approach, to cover a breaking story without providing the context that the authentic cartoons (versus the Abu Laban fabrications) bring to it. So here’s the question of the hour for the MSM: Will it cower in dhimmitude and allow the perception of power of a few radicals to stifle free speech, or will it cover the entire controversy objectively and let news consumers make up our own minds. So far, the answer to that question isn’t encouraging.

MY BAD: It turns out that the Saudi prince owns over 5 percent of FNC, and is apparently interested in buying more. What’s the point of that—doesn’t he already own the part attached to the network’s short hairs?

Reader Sally writes:

As the focus begins to narrow in the Cartoon Crisis, one culprit increasingly comes to mind: BIG MEDIA (BM). With few exceptions, BM is not to be found near this storm. American BM especially, is taking an extended vacation. The blogosphere is doing all of the heavy lifting, reporting the events and investigating the deeper story minute by minute as it unfolds.

Contrast BM’s lack of curiosity regarding the Cartoon Crisis, with the Katrina Media of a few short months ago. In September 05, BM was eager to jump into the leading edge of the storm’s destruction, piling on with Category 5 level lies, innuendo, finger pointing, race baiting, instances of hindering rescue efforts, and asking grave questions such as: What does this event say about how eeeeevil America (especially George Bush) treats its underpriviliged?

Yet in this much more far-reaching and complex crisis, where the media actually belongs at the leading edge, BM seems instead to have retreated to the calm in the eye, hoping the winds will magically dissipate after they’ve gotten maximum mileage out of the protest videos.

Yep, it seems when the threat from a real enemy (Islamofascists) looms, BM is inclined to stay busybusybusy and locked away in its office. But when the threat of an imagined enemy (GWB, mother nature, NSA) can be supplemented with dramatic video… and reporters detect a chance to blame Bush, BM is willing to brave fierce storms, stinking stadiums, warm Evian & stale Snickers bars, shadowy gangs of murderers & rapists, etc.

Yup. It sure seems that way.