We are now moving from a period of being "sitting ducks" to "dead ducks," with the media fomenting the destruction of truth and in turn, encouraging the death of innocents. - Steve Quayle, via email
Muslim extremists, terrorists, killed 12 people at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, including illustrators and cartoonists, targeted for no other reason than their provocative covers which included caricatures of the the prophet Muhammed. Hebdo is famous for lampooning high profile figures and groups, and in December they poked fun at Christians and the birth of Jesus Christ...... the difference is, Christians did not don masks and storm the offices of Charlie Hebdo, opening fire and murdering innocents.
This not the first time Muslim extremists have attacked Charlie Hebdo. In 2011 their offices were firebombed after publishing a cartoon of the prophet on its cover promising “100 lashes if you don’t die laughing!”
While cartoonists from across the globe have stood up in solidarity, creating their own heartbreaking response to the tragedy and senseless murders and the French President Francois Hollande, who has been lampooned himself by the satirical magazine, stated "No barbaric act will ever extinguish the freedom of the press," some of the US mainstream media's response has set a very dangerous and deadly precedent by censoring the images.
Media outlets such as NBC, MSNBC, NYT, New York Daily News, CNN and The Associated Press, just to name a few, are coming under fire for blurring out, or refusing to show the images because terrorists have cowed them into censorig free speech, turning us from "sitting ducks," into "dead ducks," by fomenting the destruction of truth, which in turn, encourages the death of more innocents. Other outlets, perhaps understanding the danger of allowing Muslim extremists to gag Freedom of Speech, have published the images and slideshows of some of Charlie Hebdo's most provocative cartoons. Those include Bloomberg, Huffington Post, Fox News, and The Daily Beast.
Although we are not at this time showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet considered offensive by many Muslims, platforms are encouraged to verbally describe the cartoons in detail. This is key to understanding the nature of the attack on the magazine and the tension between free expression and respect for religion.
Video or stills of street protests showing Parisians holding up copies of the offensive cartoons, if shot wide, are also OK. Avoid close-ups of the cartoons that make them clearly legible.
It's also OK to show most of the protest cartoons making the rounds online, though care should be taken to avoid examples that include within them detailed depictions of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
This sets the most dangerous precedent that can be set, it attacks free speech and freedom of press, and it sends a message to the terrorists that we CAN be cowed, we CAN be gagged and we CAN be intimidated into silence. This is especially dangerous as new reports show a rise in Islamic immigration into the US.
Perhaps the most deadly and dangerous response of all came from the man that sits in the Oval Office, Barack Obama, as he condemns the attack, yet refused to use the word Islamic in any way, shape or form, despite the fact that the attackers could be heard shouting 'the prophet has been avenged,' 'Allahu akbar' .
Below the video from The Alex Jones Channel which discusses how the attack against Charlie Hebdo is creating a "chilling effect on free speech," are some examples, via Mashable, of cartoonists standing in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo and showing that they cannot be cowed, cannot be threatened and will not be intimidated by Islamic extremists.
