Nat Hentoff, the Godfather of jazz writing, speaks:
“…When the riots and deaths following those Danish cartoons were reported in American newspapers, none of the offending cartoons was published accompanying the stories in major dailies, except the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Sun. But I ran the story at the Village Voice, where I then had a column, with the cartoon of Prophet Muhammad wearing the bomb-shaped turban.
I was damned if I'd be intimidated for doing my job as a reporter…”
Note: Hentoff’s also a fearless civil libertarian (probably no coincidence that the Fulbright Fellow who is the preeminent critic of America’s freest musical expression supports freedom of expression in other areas).
A personal note: when I was on the editorial board at The Michigan Review, I think I was the only person who militantly stood for publishing the Danish cartoons in our own paper. I viewed it as a moment of free-speech-solidarity, but I got voted down. After reading Hentoff’s piece, I’m even more confident that we should’ve run the cartoons.
I’ll throw one up right here, since I’m in such a free-speech mood:
Ain’t no shame or hiding in these quarters.
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