Sunday, February 05, 2006
DANES TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM
Mark Steyn on provocative art:
We should note that 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.
Thus, NBC is celebrating Easter this year with a special edition of the gay sitcom “Will & Grace,” in which a Christian conservative cooking-show host, played by the popular singing slattern Britney Spears, offers seasonal recipes—“Cruci-fixin’s.” On the other hand, the same network, in its coverage of the global riots over the Danish cartoons, has declined to show any of the offending artwork out of “respect” for the Muslim faith.
NBC’s next step: replacing sitcom Will & Grace, out of respect for the Muslim faith, with Homosexual & Jewess, a 30-minute deathcom based on actual trial transcripts. Here’s Dianne Rinehart in The Hamilton Spectator:
We are all Danes now, as Paul Belien, editor of the Brussels Journal said in his editorial this week.
Or we should be.
Because today Denmark is taking a beating for us all, fighting for press freedoms that can mean the difference between democracy and totalitarianism, between free speech and terror, between sleeping at night and being afraid of the knock on the door, between light and despair.
South Africans know of the fear brought by midnight doorknocks. How are they dealing with the Danish Dozen?
A South African court banned the country’s Sunday newspapers from reprinting the cartoons.
Oh. Over in New Zealand, the Cartoon Crisis has forced Prime Minister Helen Clark to adopt a bizarre new position:
"We will be keeping our ear close to the ground offshore,” she said.