{"id":1884,"date":"2015-05-05T14:07:36","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=1884"},"modified":"2015-05-05T14:07:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:07:36","slug":"helpful-hint-media-and-pundits-ok-w-piss-christ-but-not-pam-geller-are-not-hypocrites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/05\/helpful-hint-media-and-pundits-ok-w-piss-christ-but-not-pam-geller-are-not-hypocrites.html","title":{"rendered":"Helpful hint: media and pundits OK w\/ Piss Christ but not Pam Geller are not “hypocrites”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2013 they just don\u2019t support the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

So reads my (1000th) tweet earlier today, after reading repeated complaints from the Right that the Left and the media are being hypocrites in having mocked\u00a0opponents of Piss Christ, the Virgin Mary in dung, and other Great Achievements in Art, and having assiduously defended the Brooklyn Museum of Art in displaying these images, now being indifferent to the mocking of Mormons<\/a> that is the whole of the Book of Mormon Broadway musical, and yet at the same time, being all too willing to suggest that Pamela Geller brought the attack upon herself by her criticism of Islam and, in particular, the Muhammed-drawing contest she held.<\/p>\n

Now, one of the articles that\u2019s being cited in this regard, from the LA Times<\/a>, must have been substantially revised since then, because the only vestige of these implications that so-called \u201chate speech\u201d isn\u2019t to be tolerated is the single sentence,<\/p>\n

The Garland attack refocused public attention on the fine line between free speech and hate speech in the ideological struggle between radical Islam and the West.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The other article that\u2019s being cited is this: \u00a0\u201cEvent organizer offers no apology after thwarted attack in Texas<\/a>,\u201d in the Washington Post, a somewhat odd headline choice when there is no discussion in the article about apologies. \u00a0Presumably the CNN interviewer referenced in the article asked her to apologize, so the real news there is \u201cnews anchor expects Geller to apologize in the wake of Muslims communicating, via an attempted assassination, that they were upset with her,\u201d perhaps coming out of a knee-jerk 2015 conception of apologies as being offered\u00a0automatically\u00a0to those who take offense, in which whether you did or said something wrong is immaterial \u2014 though the text of the linked CNN article <\/a>doesn\u2019t speak of apologies.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this is pretty thin gruel; most articles I\u2019m finding seem to agree that Geller does indeed have a right to free speech that should not be constrained just because she\u2019s saying mean things.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there are plenty of people willing to say, \u201cjust because you have the right to do so, doesn\u2019t mean that you should<\/em> do so, because you are, after all, being mean<\/em>, and you shouldn\u2019t be mean.\u201d \u00a0And it is certainly the case that one shouldn\u2019t just gratuitously say mean things, and Geller would probably be more effective in reaching people with her message in other ways.<\/p>\n

But are the media, and progressives, playing a game of double-standards when it comes to offensive speech about Christianity?<\/p>\n

The infamous Piss Christ controversy dates back to 1989. \u00a0How would the media react today? \u00a0For what it\u2019s worth, the AP removed an image of this photograph from its image library in January of this year, according to this report<\/a>. \u00a0Are there more recent examples of similar actions?<\/p>\n

In any case, this is all about not hurting people\u2019s feelings \u2014 or, rather, the more specific rule: \u00a0\u201cdon\u2019t hurt the feelings of those who are downtrodden; but the powerful are fair game.\u201d \u00a0And in the case of religious groups in the U.S. and Europe, Muslims are \u201cdowntrodden\u201d but Mormons and mainstream Christians, well, they\u2019re in power and thus eminently mockable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2013 they just don\u2019t support the First Amendment. So reads my (1000th) tweet earlier today, after reading repeated complaints from the Right that the Left and the media are being hypocrites in having mocked\u00a0opponents of Piss Christ, the Virgin Mary in dung, and other Great Achievements in Art, and having assiduously defended the Brooklyn Museum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHelpful hint: media and pundits OK w\/ Piss Christ but not Pam Geller are not "hypocrites"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"- they just don't support the First Amendment. 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