A challenge to Rolling Stone

If Rolling Stone is letting Kanye West pose as Jesus Christ on the cover this week, that's their decision. I'm sure there were high-fives all around the editorial board meeting in which this was approved, 'cause that'll really freak out the rubes in Red-State America, you know. Controversy equals sales, West's massive ego is satisfied, and the editors' persecution fantasies are fulfilled. Everybody wins.

I hardly ever go to Church, so I personally don't find the cover offensive. If someone tried to get the magazine banned, I would support Rolling Stone on freedom-of-expression grounds. But I don't think this is going to turn into a major international diplomatic incident, and that's what brings me to my next point.

In Denmark, the newspaper Jyllands-Posten launched a storm of controversy when it published twelve cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed. The paper has received death threats and formal protests from some of the most repressive dictatorships on earth, and some Muslim groups plan to drag the paper before the European Court of Human Rights. Even the United Nations has gotten involved, with "a U.N. rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" demanding the Danish government explain how something so blasphemous could be published.

Was Jyllands-Posten being deliberately provocative? Sure - just like Rolling Stone was. My question is, will the folks at Rolling Stone, who style themselves as a bold defenders of freedom of expression, show support for their Danish colleagues by reprinting the Mohammed cartoons and running a story on the case?

I'm waiting, with breathless anticipation.

Posted by damian at January 25, 2006 07:42 AM | TrackBack