Glenn spent a lot of time on radio this morning talking about the terrorists attacks in France and the importance of free speech, even when it's uncomfortable speech. While he strongly disagreed with the content of the cartoons that provoked a terror attack resulting in the death of 12 people, he believed that you have a right mock religious figures. It might be offensive, it might even be despicable, it doesn't mean it should be censored. To illustrate his point, he showed the front page of the magazine on the radio show.
"This is quite possibly the beginning of some really nasty stuff," Glenn said of the attacks. "I think this stuff is going to increase in frequency, and I think it's sad. AP has proven themselves now to be liars and dishonest and disingenuous. Associated Press has said they're not going to show the Islamic cartoon, but they did show Piss Christ."
"Yeah, even though they claim to have a long-standing policy for years that we refrain from moving deliberately from provocative images," Pat said.
Editor's note: The AP has since removed the photos following a story from 'The Washington Examiner'.
"I want to make this clear," Glenn said. "I think the cartoons that this newspaper printed are not funny. You know, in the 'MAD Magazine' sort of way, they're just not funny. And they are offensive. They are offensive to -- to anybody. I mean, you know, we all have to understand it. People hold things sacred. There are such a thing as things that should be held sacred. And what people believe and hold in sacred nature, we should not mock," Glenn said. "However, you can mock."
Glenn pointed out that comedians have had their livelihoods attacked because of satire, pointing out that Bill Maher lost his job at ABC because of a joke about Muslims. It's certainly not of the same scale, but a similar issue.
"Comedians make horrible comments, stupid jokes, we always stand with them because you should always have the right to go out there even when it offends your side and make these comments," Stu said.
"We think that mocking the sacred is wrong. But you have a right to do it. We don't want to do it, but it is -- it is your right to do it. I personally think it was wrong for of the newspaper to print these things. But I'm conflicted because they were only printing them, supposedly, because people said, you can't post them. And I don't want to live in a society where one segment of the population scares others into silence," Glenn said.
Glenn shows the offensive magazine cover on TheBlaze TV.
"Today I am Charlie. We are all Charlie today. That's what we should be doing, even though I find this reprehensible and offensive," Glenn said.
'Charlie Hebdo' has published cartoons mocking many religious figures, not just the Prophet Muḥammad.
To illustrate his point, Glenn showed the offensive cartoons. You can see them in the video below:
Front page image courtesy of the AP....notice how they cropped the photo?
