Small Boston Paper Publishes Mohammed Cartoon

Posted on February 17, 2006

Editor & Publisher reports that the Spare Change News, a small Boston newspaper, has published one of the controversial Mohammed Cartoons. E&P had part of the paper's editorial:

The editorial stated, in part: "Spare Change News advocates for social justice, and having freedom of speech -- even that which makes fun of religion -- is one of the rights all people should enjoy. Yes, the cartoons were in poor taste. The Danish newspaper probably should not have published them. But adults in civilized societies do not murder and pillage whenever their sensibilities are offended. ...

"The mainstream media have also surrendered their duty to the public -- and to the truth. ....Many of the images in question are indeed disgusting, and SCN would never reprint any of them except under these extraordinary circumstances. But now that the images are newsworthy in and of themselves, the mainstream media have a responsibility to inform their audiences, in the most accurate and impartial method possible, of why the rioters are angry."

The publication adds Spare Change News to the relatively short list of newspapers and magazines that have published the cartoons. The outrage at the cartoons in the Middle East and Europe first began as protests and boycotts of Danish products. Recently the protests have become violent. People have been killed and several embassies and restaurants have been burned.

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