Today, Doonesbury’s Garry Trudeau became the first cartoonist to ever receieve a George Polk Award. During the festivities*, he remarked that the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo — the satirical Parisian magazine that was recently the site of a terror attack — “wandered into the realm of hate speech.” He also added that “free speech… becomes its own kind of fanaticism.”
So Charlie Hebdo’s nationally beloved cartoonists were massacred and yet, Trudeau thinks its helpful to contextualize their deaths by characterizing them as hate-spewing fanatics. This is the free speech equivalent of suggesting they had it coming because they were wearing short skirts. And yet, Treaudeau’s journalistic peers don’t seem to see the problem here. Here’s what a New York Times bureau chief had to say:
