Madison's WISC-TV publishes Mohammad cartoon
Madison's CBS affiliate, Channel 3, should be commended for stepping up the plate after yesterday's forum and becoming the second local media outlet to share one of the controversial Danish cartoons with its audience.
On February 15, the local network affiliate covered the issue and, when showing The Badger Herald, used a form of blur censorship on the screen. As I joked on a local radio station, the heavy-handed blurring was wholly reminiscent of how a pornographic image might be conveyed on a family-friendly broadcast.
But last night WISC-TV covered the campus forum and in their report, the same page of The Badger Herald is shown, with the cartoon in tact.
I've already expended plenty of ink explaining why this image should be shared, and I am glad to see that the Herald is no longer the only media outlet in Madison to have this sentiment. WISC-TV should be commended, especially because I am sure that it took no small amount of humility to change their original editorial policy.
3 Comments:
Hi Mac,
Here I am again. Ok, just to reiterate what I believe most of the people had problems with BH printing this cartoon the way it did vs how WISC-TV did it (and which I am amazed that people are still not fully comprehending).
Channel 3 was reporting on an event and showed the newspaper and thus the cartoon as a news piece. They reported on this thing, covered the forum and showed BH's editorial page. They did not, and I repeat, they did not put it in a place where it did not belong.
That is completely different from what BH did. They did not report on the cartoon. They printed it as a reaction and reaction alone. They did not try to balance this thing by talking to other people. They did not dig deep into this and kept their analysis pretty shallow. I can keep on talking about how the analogy that you are making is just not fair.
I am not sure if you would be willing to agree to my point but please, for one second, come out of the idealistic world that you have created around yourself in the name of 'freedom of speech' in which you believe that humans are perfect and that BH's showing of this cartoon (and especially the way it was shown) affects no one's opinions and stereotypes.
I just wish that you could look at this rationally rather than trying to think of it as a debate of 'freedom of speech' vs 'censorship'.
Alas, sometimes wishes do not come true and so I would have to see if this one does or not.
I applaud WISC - given the explicit statement and blurring during the station's initial coverage, the deliberate display of the cartoon in this second piece seems to be a conscious decision to reverse course.
Good on WISC-TV. And good on you for keeping your cool at the forum the other day - sounds like it was pretty bad.
Post a Comment
<< Home