Look upon the drawings of Muhammed and know fear

I read on the Beeb today that the editor of France Soir, having decided to show solidarity with the Danish news publication Jyllands-Posten was fired for having reprinted these cartoons (HT: Zombietime).

It is the right of a newspaper owner to fire whichever employee he chooses, for whatever reason he chooses. However, "for the sake of peace and intercultural understanding" is not a very good excuse in the news world. The media are responsible for reporting news -- pardon me, reporting FACTS -- regardless of hurt feelings. The fact is, these cartoons were solicited as potential illustrations for a book on Muhammed, and were none of them drawn by Muslims, therefore the restriction on Muslims against depicting Muhammed has not been violated. The fact is, some Muslims intend to impose their rigid laws on every other culture with whom they come into contact. The fact is, as a result of having published these satirical cartoons, Jyllands-Posten has been threatened with violence and, the entire nation is threatened with boycots to its many industries. The fact is, this is a threat to free speech. The fact is, once a media source surrenders to this sort of thing, it will likely never be trusted again, because it can not call itself free.

American and British newspapers, television stations, etc., have yet to show these images. As far as I can tell, there is no good reason for our media giants to ignore this threat. The so-called journalists at the MSM perceive threats to our freedom in the old laws and practices supported long ago and recently collated in the PATRIOT act, but see nothing dangerous in what some Muslim fanatics are trying to do across Europe? Who are they kidding?

It is time the rest of the world sees what the noise is about, and it is time the rest of the world's media come to the aid of their brethren in Denmark. Our collective ass is in this boat, too.