Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
A teaching moment missed	excon	02/08/06
Hello Republicans: President Bush hates the press even when he should be loving the press. I don't get it. Through his mouthpiece Scott McClelland, here’s what he said: "We support and respect the freedom of the press, but there are also important responsibilities that come with that freedom." This is wrong - dangerously wrong. The guarantees of free expression (such as the First Amendment in our own country) include no "if," no "also," no "but." The guarantees do not ordain a "responsible" press, but a free press. This is what the Muslims, who often show no respect for the beliefs of others, must learn even if they learn it the hard way. Followers of the prophet are entitled to believe that a caricature of the man they revere is wrong. If they believe that, they should neither draw such a caricature nor look upon one drawn by someone else. They have no right to impose that belief on anyone else, Hindu, Christian or Hottentot. This is what Kofi Annan and the bowed heads of Europe and spokesmen for the State Department and the White House, and George W. Bush, should be telling the Muslims. excon
Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 02/09/06 9:40 am: ex, What a coincidence, our paper today printed a column by Kathleen Parker in which she said "what is appalling is that a Western leader who still wields enormous power would sacrifice an opportunity to explain big ideas and big principles to a part of the world that clearly doesn't understand them." It wasn't Bush though... "Former US president Bill Clinton warned of rising anti-Islamic prejudice, comparing it to historic anti-Semitism as he condemned the publishing of cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. “So now what are we going to do? ... Replace the anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?” he said at an economic conference in the Qatari capital of Doha. “In Europe, most of the struggles we’ve had in the past 50 years have been to fight prejudices against Jews, to fight against anti-Semitism,” he said. Clinton described as “appalling” the 12 cartoons published in a Danish newspaper in September depicting Prophet Mohammed and causing uproar in the Muslim world. “None of us are totally free of stereotypes about people of different races, different ethnic groups, and different religions ... there was this appalling example in northern Europe, in Denmark ... these totally outrageous cartoons against Islam,” he said." Wow, now talk about not getting it... Steve
Answered By		Answered On
Itsdb		02/08/06
ex, Yes it was a teaching moment missed and no the first amendment does not 'ordain a "responsible" press.' It is the same amendment that guarantees the right of say, a Jimmy Carter or a Joseph Lowery to stand in the pulpit at a funeral to criticize the president right behind them instead of celebrating the life of the deceased. Folks have the right to say or print what they want here, even when it goes beyond the bounds of good taste, common sense, and/or the welfare of others. It does not guarantee the holder of those rights will use good judgment - or as the most intolerant among us tend to believe, the right to not be offended. Steve

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