‘Ethics, not fear, should guide media’ re controversial cartoons: Catholic League

Feb 9, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commended mainstream media outlets for not reprinting or broadcasting the controversial cartoons, printed initially in a Danish newspaper, which offended Muslims worldwide and sparked violent retaliation.

“The Catholic League sides with the U.S., Britain and the Vatican in denouncing the inflammatory cartoons,” he said.

However, Donohue expressed his view that the media’s decision was not motivated by professional ethics.

“Regrettably, the decision by the media not to offend Muslims is motivated by fear, not ethics,” he said. “Worse than this, by far, is the violent reaction and calls for violence, which have sprung up all over the Muslim world. This is pure barbarism.”

“Ethics, not fear, should guide the media,” he said, adding that Muslims offended by the cartoons “should learn what a civilized response entails.”

He also questioned why some European societies reprinted the cartoons and cited the Washington Post, which attributed the reprinting “not [to] their love of freedom but [to] their insensitivity—or hostility—to the growing diversity of their own societies.” 

Donohue suggested that the U.S. media should treat Catholicism with the same respect that it is currently showing Muslims. “If Catholicism were treated with such sensitivity and respect, we would have to shut down the Catholic League,” he said.