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SINGER CHANGES TUNE
In 1997, columnist Jill Singer argues for the display of Piss Christ:
We ... need to understand the value of artistic freedom.
In 2006, columnist Jill Singer argues against the display of Prophet toons:
Who wants a totally uncensored media run by those devoid of judgment, taste or social responsibility?
Read on for Singer’s dire warning: “Just because you possess a weapon it is not always wise to use it.” Tell that to Andres Serrano the next time he’s pointing his weapon at any nearby crucifixes, Jill.
(Via Andrew Rutherford)
UPDATE. Mark Steyn:
In the Western world “artists” “provoke” with the same numbing regularity as young Muslim men light up other countries’ flags. When Tony-winning author Terence McNally writes a Broadway play in which Jesus has gay sex with Judas, the New York Times and Co. rush to garland him with praise for how “brave” and “challenging” he is. The rule for “brave” “transgressive” “artists” is a simple one: If you’re going to be provocative, it’s best to do it with people who can’t be provoked.
In this most-peculiar war, the “images” battle is about defeating our enemy while trying not to upset him.
The question is, Why?
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2006 02 09 at 09:38 AM • permalinkAttention all Howard/ Bush / Blair Hating attention seekers who have fought against the censorship of the media so bravely. Where is your common denigration of Islamo Fascism? Where are your offers, nay, demands to be martyrs for the cause of freedom of speech when it is really under attack.
Robert Manne, David Marr, Sigrid Thornton, Kerry Obrien, Cameron Diaz, Margo Kingston, Virginai Trioli, George Galloway, Cindy Sheehan, Howard Dean, Teddy Kennedy, George Clooney, NBC, CBS, PBS, Stephen Spielberg, Michael Leunig, Fairfax, NYT, ABC, SBS, CNN, International Federation of Journalists, Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, where is your condemnation? No I thought so, you are just a bunch of free speech posers who hide at the first serious threat to your freedoms.
Once again you will leave the fighting to the reviled right to defend your freedom to demean us. Your silence is disgusting and sickening.
Posted by platey mates on 2006 02 09 at 09:38 AM • permalinkExcept in their periodic bleating about freedoms the Western press are talking about their freedoms….not yours or mine.
So best you don’t look around…. ‘cause the “Free Press” cavalry has already decamped in unseemly haste.That big yellow stripe sure looks striking on their blue cavalry serge.Posted by desert rat on 2006 02 09 at 09:57 AM • permalinkOthers have said it over these cartoons, I’ll repeat it.
The death penalty is a very real and potent deterrent. The left has forever surrendered the ability to argue otherwise with any credibility.
Posted by Mike Jericho on 2006 02 09 at 10:10 AM • permalinkWell put, Mike.
As for Jill Singer—what a stupid and self serving bint. She’s as bad as MoDo.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 02 09 at 10:37 AM • permalinkSo what else is new? Jill Singer is just another lefty devoid of judgment, taste and social responsibility. The sour cowardice in the face of the Muslies of the MSM gave themselves away long ago. Or have we forgotten CNNs admission that they did not report anything adverse to Sadass of Iraq out of fear of being thrown out of Iraq? Of course, CNN never admitted to Peter Arnett’s broadcast of lies upon lies, even beating the historical record set by Duranty of that other hypocitical “news” source, the New York Twit (All the news that fits, we print).
Singer is still operating on the old model, where the audience is not expected to remember (or easily check) what she said last week, let alone eight or nine years ago.
“Ladies and gentlemen, meet… the future!” — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 09 at 11:00 AM • permalinkJill Singer asks a very valid question about the media when she asks:
“Who wants a totally uncensored media run by those devoid of judgment, taste or social responsibility?”
Of course, since she is a person devoid of judgement, taste or social responsibility, as demonstrated in her Piss Christ article the question she asks is about herself, and the answer to her question is “We agree with you Jill. Be sincere to your conviction. Get another job. Dishwasher in a restaurant would suit you well. Don’t break too many plates.”
Steyn, with his customary perspicacity, has nailed it. Elitists in the media (and let’s not forget the academia nuts!)pride themselves on having jettisoned all the cultural baggage of the “booboisie”, but have a psychological need to feel the thrill of living on the edge; yet it is a blunt edge, where the daring and provocativeness of their pronouncements can pretty safely be relied on to incur no consequences save for the occasional indignant letter to the editor or a denunciation by the representatives of the offended group. When freedom of expression means that you might have to risk something other than the mere verbal opprobrium of non-violent protestors, why, then it’s time to employ the “sensitivity” gambit.
RebeccaH:
Sad to say, but I’d bet you’re right.
paco: I concur.
Steyn nails the sorry state, not only of the ‘arts’ and the press, but of ‘dissent’ in the West, as well. Western political life has become a consequence-free fairyland where snapping wet towels at the powerful—who never bite back—is considered an act of defiance and courage.
The West’s tinkertoy ‘dissidents’ and its faux ‘anti-war movement’ only talk tough when there are no risks, save a televised arrest with plastic handcuffs, followed by activist legal representation and a slap on the wrist.
This time around, the U.S. press, with a few notable exceptions, has capitulated in the face of a wholly contrived threat, orchestrated purposely to intimidate it. The tough, clever kids snookering the naive, smarty-pants in-crowd.
The same media that had no trouble showing images of the Rodney King beating or Abu Ghraib, over and over and over, knowing full well the emotions those images would provoke against their political adversaries, ducks and runs for cover, whitewashing Muslim ‘reaction’ to the ‘insult’ in the process.
Punk-ass peanut gallery blowhard Bill Maher wrote that those who advocated wars should have to fight them. Well, when the time came for those who make the most use of First Amendment rights to do something to defend them, almost to a man (and woman), the U.S. media—entertainment and press, alike—was AWOL.
I have an idea for a 2-character play that perhaps Terence O’Malley or some other brave, transgressive artist (Tim Robbins maybe?) might be interested in:
Takes place in the afterlife (non-descript, but vaguely unpleasant—certainly no evidence of 72 lovelies—suggesting that Jehovah and Jesus were not amused) where Mohammed is being interviewed about his life and times by an intrepid journalist in the mold of, say, Jill Singer. He tells her about his life-long opium habit and how he would take his pipe up into the caves where he had wild, psychedelic dreams in which God appeared to him talking trash.
“I was that gobsmacked when people started taking my dreams seriously, even building a religious cult around them,” confesses Mohammed. “But, hey, you know what? This whole prophet, messenger of God bit turned out to be one swell gig….”
Think anybody would be interested?
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 02 09 at 02:08 PM • permalinkRhhardin 8, it’s been a LONG time since I read Lautreamont, but I’m pretty sure he was kidding about at least half of what he wrote, n’est-ce pas?
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 09 at 06:02 PM • permalinkOh, and note to the TARDIS detail: Nice job on planting the 97 piece. Well done, Stoop.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 09 at 08:49 PM • permalinkBut sir But sir wait wait !! I didn’t plant anything ... far as I know that stupid story was genuine Singer material ... at least my present self has no memory of ... of planting anything like that ... oh dear ...
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 10 at 09:54 AM • permalink
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Bingo! How many more are going to trip themselves up like this?