Cartoonist Garry Trudeau accepted the Career Achievement Award last week at the allegedly prestigious George Polk journalism awards. But in his acceptance speech, he raised more than a few eyebrows by attacking the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo—the ones who were murdered earlier this year when Muslim terrorists stormed their offices in Paris. According to Trudeau, Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons mocking religion had “wandered into the realm of hate speech.” He further warned that “free speech” can become “its own kind of fanaticism.”
At The Weekly Standard’s website, Mark Hemingway wrote a squib calling Trudeau’s remarks the “free speech equivalent of suggesting they had it coming because they were wearing short skirts.” He also criticized the media figures applauding Trudeau (a New York Times bureau chief referred to Trudeau’s “wise, nuanced words”). This did not sit well with former Times writer John Darnton, who wrote a sternly worded letter defending Trudeau:
Did Darnton really think this clarified Trudeau’s contemptible speech, or was he just going through the motions? Does he really think the men who shot and killed 11 people at Charlie Hebdo’s offices were powerless? Darnton doubles down on blaming Charlie Hebdo’s cartoonists for their own murder, because they apparently “fed the flames of violence and caused Muslims throughout France to rally around the extremists.” Are France’s Muslims expected to broadly support killing people who offend them? This is, as it happens, not an accurate assessment of France’s Muslims, besides being astonishingly patronizing.
The Scrapbook is long past the point where we expect media elites to stand up for free speech. But most of the time they attempt to disguise their cowardice, not go so far as to rationalize it as enlightened opinion. But here it is in black and white.
Any journalist who receives a Polk award from this point on will have to contend with the fact that the honor comes from an organization that doesn’t believe in the bedrock right that makes their profession possible.
