Associated Press and CNN Line Up with the Cowards: No Free Press Here Because Freedom Is Awesome!

Knew this wouldn't take long. What AP had in its commercial photo system like this:

...is so much safer when treated like this:

There, don't you feel more like the Home of the Brave now?

Oh, but they're not alone. CNN is spending time on how to deal with the cartoons, but, according to Talking Points Memo, have advised that:

"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," CNN senior editorial director Richard Griffiths said in the memo.

Oh yeah, talking about a cartoon without showing it is awesome free! We need two Fourth of July's now, one for talking about fireworks and another for actually shooting real fireworks. Both are just awesome! What's the difference?

TPM has published some cartoons in full, in fact the ones I show in this post. On the "Land of the Free except we'll blur stuff out" side of the equation, we have the New York Daily News and The Telegraph, although technically the Telegraph is on the pip-pip-cheerio-mustn't-ruffle-their-feathers side of the Pond.

With comrades in arms such as these, solidarity in the face of intimidation seems problematic, n'est-ce pas?

Sorry, folks, as Paul Simon has said:

These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all

Yeah, the way we look to us all. Uh, not very good, not just now...