Never Cross The NYT

July 5th, 2006 11:03 AM

"Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever." - Michael Corleone, The Godfather

Mark Hohmeister writes for the Tallahassee Democrat about picking editorial cartoons. While he admits to being liberal, he also notes that one shouldn't pick editorial cartoons based on your personal ideology. Last week he made the mistake of picking one where Uncle Sam was reading the New York Times with the masthead saying "All the Treason Fit to Print."

He heard back from unhappy readers, which didn't surprise me, but he also heard from his former publisher of the Democrat, who said:

"In more than 50 years of various responsibilities for newspapers and editorial pages, I've defended a lot of editorial cartoons. But this one is indefensible."

Is it? I've yet to hear from anyone who can tell me what the Times did was not a violation of Title 18, 794 right down to the letter of the law. Greg Sheffield also pointed out a previous time the media walked away with the blood of American soldiers on their hands.

What should be indefensible is the fact that journalists profit from spilt blood. Peace and tranquility is not in the best interests of the media.