NEW YORK A day before the Philadelphia Inquirer published one of the controversial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, which drew protesters to the paper, the Austin American-Statesman ran one of the images, but reportedly received reader support for its efforts.
Editor Rich Oppel said he published a cartoon in last Friday's edition depicting Muhammad with a turban similar to a bomb. He said the image ran on an inside page with the jump from a page one New York Times story about the controversy.
"To my knowledge, it evoked one letter of support and one letter of opposition," Oppel said Tuesday. "We spent about half an hour with eight to 10 editors discussing it, and it was split, but I made the final decision."
On the front page, a reference to the inside image both warned and invited readers to see it, stating "see an example of a drawing that offended Muslims and find out why it has."
Oppel said the paper also launched a blog for readers on Friday, asking those who wished to comment to post their views. He said among the 18 messages posted, 17 were in support of publishing the image.
"I think it's a close call," Oppel said when asked about other papers that have chosen not to run the images. "There is good reason for sensitivity about a cartoon. On the other hand, we like to inform readers when we can and we were sensitive. We didn't put it out on the front page and it was a way of responding to reader interest without rubbing it in the nose of people who take offense."
Oppel went on to add that such decisions also should rely on news value as well, not just concerns about offending others. "It is one thing to respect other people's faiths and religion, but it goes beyond where I would go to accept their taboos in the context of our freedoms and our society," he said. "I think we have struck a good median on this."
In a related move, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland today published a strong editorial on the cartoons, which included a Web link to a site that has the images. "Islamic groups should be able to present their case for how offensive any image of Muhammad is to practicing Muslims without calls to kill, maim, burn and butcher," the editorial stated. "That just promotes the stereotypes reflected in some of the 12 cartoons. By the same token, free speech also means resisting the net of self-censorship and political correctness that some Muslim groups want to cast over western media."
The editorial included a link to http://cryptome.org/muhammad.htm, where the cartoon is posted. But the paper did not publish the images in the print edition or on its Web site. "I don't see any need to put the image in the paper," said Editor Doug Clifton. "I think everything you need to know, you know by a description."
Joe Strupp (Jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.
