They checked
Erik Wemple at the Washington Post again.
As a member of the NBC News family, MSNBC last year elected not to show its viewers the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that circulated in the Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo — even after those cartoons became newsworthy for motivating a murderous terrorist attack on the magazine’s offices. “Our NBC News Group Standards team has sent guidance to NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC not to show headlines or cartoons that could be viewed as insensitive or offensive,” an NBC News spokesperson said.
So are they sticking to that this year? Still censoring cartoons at the behest of religious fanatics who like killing people?
Erik Wemple
After finding out that Charlie Hebdo cover satirizes God, MSNBC censors it
Resize Text Print Article Comments 35By Erik Wemple January 7
A copy of the latest edition of French weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)
As a member of the NBC News family, MSNBC last year elected not to show its viewers the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that circulated in the Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo — even after those cartoons became newsworthy for motivating a murderous terrorist attack on the magazine’s offices. “Our NBC News Group Standards team has sent guidance to NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC not to show headlines or cartoons that could be viewed as insensitive or offensive,” an NBC News spokesperson said.So how to handle the edition commemorating the anniversary of that attack? This one carries a depiction of God-as-terrorist, complete with a rifle strapped to his back and a line that reads, “One year on: the killer is still at large.”
An MSNBC rep told the Erik Wemple Blog today that the network, consistent with last year’s approach, isn’t showing images of the cover. Then we pointed out that Mediaite’s Alex Griswold had snared a screengrab of MSNBC indeed showing the cover.
In a reply that merits no further commentary from this blog, the MSNBC rep says that the network showed the current Charlie Hebdo cover up until it confirmed that the image was of God. “Once we found that out, we stopped showing it,” notes the rep.
Oh well that’s different – they confirmed that the image actually is of the actual authenticated “God.” I have to respect that.
Well, to be fair, religious fanatics have to stick together regardless of denomination and from the outside the USA looks terrifyingly religious in nature.
Dammit, wrong email used again. I blame FITH syndrome.
That cartoon of ‘God’ shows Him suspiciously with human likeness.
Isn’t that blasphemy? He is omnipotent and omniscient and immaterial.
Looks a pretty ordinary (wild) bastard to me.
Check Him out at https://www.enca.com/world/one-year-charlie-hebdo-irks-vatican-god-cartoon
I feel a bit for the media in these cases. Consider the following hypothetical:
TV network X shows a Muhammad cartoon; Islamist fuckwit sees that cartoon; Islamist tracks down and kills a random employee of network X.
Cue a massive payout to the victim’s family, various lawsuits, a lot of know-it-alls spewing bile in their direction etc.
I bet a lot of folks would like to show this stuff, but are over-ruled by corporate lawyers.
That actually reads like a joke.
Perhaps Hebdo could argue, à la Author, that this is, actually, a stunt double?
Oooo! Or they could stamp on a ‘dramatic reenactment’ label?
Where is the satirical edginess in savaging the beliefs of Catholics, who will not murder you, while passing on Islamists who might? For this, they died and the clerical gang that murdered them made their counter-Enlightenment intentions plain by going on to murder Jews, the favoured target of lethal reactionary power from the Inquisition to the Nazis….
“L’assassin” seems more yahweh than allah, but still…
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/09/hold-dear-enlightenment-values-in-iliberal-times-charlie-hebdo