Danish-cartoon-controversy Anniversary

On September 30th, 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons relating to Mohammed and Islam.  One of the paper’s editors, Flemming Rose, was concerned about freedom of expression and about a growing trend of self-censorship in the West on the subject of Islam.  “That is why Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten has invited members of the Danish editorial cartoonists union to draw Muhammad as they see him,” Rose explained.

The New Propaganda Wing of the Obama Administration

“‘Artists’ as Servants of Power”—In a big conference call with artists on August 10th, one Mike Skolnik explained, “I have been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA” (the National Endowment for the Arts) to “help bring together the independent artists’ community around the country.”  Why?  Well, “You are the thought leaders.  You are the ones that…tell our country and our young people sort of what to do and what to be into, and what’s cool and what’s not cool.”  Given their cultural power, he wanted to encourage these artists “to support some of the president’s initiatives”.

Two Thoughts on Tabloids

Recently I was in a group discussing a New York Times article about the fruit of John Edwards’s affair.  I was struck by The National Enquirer‘s cameo in the article:

Mr. Edwards dismissed an initial report in The National Enquirer in 2007 that he was having an affair, and the matter was largely ignored by the mainstream news media. But in July 2008, The Enquirer published an article with photographs of a clandestine meeting Mr. Edwards had with Ms. Hunter and her daughter in a Los Angeles hotel. Days later, Mr. Edwards acknowledged the affair to “Nightline” on ABC, offering contrition but insisting that the child could not be his because of the timing and brevity of their intimacy.