Charlie Hebdo: The BBC and New York Times reject Jew Suis Charlie and Muhammad’s tears
The Charlie Hebdo cover is all over the web. For those of you have not yet seen it, it’s here below. Charlie Hebdo manages to reproduce the character at the centre of the controversy (no choice there) whilst mocking the people who before the massacre slammed the magazine for causing offence and now brandish the legend ‘I am Charlie’ as a advert to their own good morals. Who needs a cross on a necklace when you have a Charlie Hebdo magazine tucked under your arm?
Three million copies of the so-called “survivors’ edition” are being printed. The usual print run is 60,000. So. Buy a copy and show off your commitment to free speech. But, better still, exercise it.
The cover shows Muhammad shedding a single tear under the headline: “All is forgiven”. He holds the message: “Je suis Charlie.”
It’s the work of Renald Luzier, aka Luz. He might be dead had he not overslept and arrived late at the office.
He says the cartoon is of “a funny little man who’s always crying”.
“I drew Muhammad. I looked at him and he was crying. Above him I wrote, ‘All is forgiven’ and then I cried too. Muhammad, he’s my character. He exists when I draw him. A character who got our offices burnt down, who had us criticised as dangerously irresponsible. Above all, we’re just artists who like drawing funny little men. It’s not the front page the terrorists would have wanted, but its our front page.”
London mayor Boris Johnson, saw the cover:
“You cannot have a march through the streets of Paris attended by 46 world leaders, four million people, climaxing with a shout of ‘We are not afraid’ and then not print the central object of contention. Of course they are right to do that and I am afraid it is absolutely vital now that everybody stands up and defends their right to publish. You may not agree with what they have done, you may be offended by what they have done, but you should defend their right to publish it.”
Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan said:
“If the cartoon had read ‘Je suis Ahmed’, given that many were carrying that badge after the police Ahmed Merabet who was killed, might not have put more salt to the wound but taken it to another level.”
Can you see it on the BBC. Yes. But only as it appears in Liberation, which has been hosting the Charlie Hebdo team since the attack:
@AndrewStilesUSA spots MSNBC:
The New York Post shows the cover but interprets it in an unusual manner:
You cannot see the cover at all in the New York Times.
You can see it in The Guardian, the Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times and Wall Street Journal
Do you give into relativism and make the image a moral judgement? Or is free speech and right to offend and explain yourself more your thing? Do you think Western values are worth supporting?
Such are the facts…
The New York Pot
Posted: 13th, January 2015 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
