Attempted Murder Equated with Cartoon Publication: The Moral Relativism of CBS

March 5th, 2006 6:53 PM

I don't watch the network evening news shows. Really. But for whatever perverse reason, I decided to flip among ABC, NBC and CBS tonight, and hit some morally relativistic pay dirt. CBS Evening News equated attempted murder with the exercise of basic First Amendment freedoms.

Readers here are familiar with the incident in which the Iranian Mohammed Reza Taheri, with the reportedly admitted intent of avenging the mistreatment of Muslims, drove an SUV into a crowd on the campus of the University of North Carolina.

Introducing a segment on the incident, CBS stated: "It is the second skirmish over religion on campus in a few weeks."

Really? "Second" skirmish? And just what was the other "skirmish"? Turns out, according to CBS, it was the the fact that the Daily Tar Heel, the UNC campus newspaper, recently "published its own controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, touching off protests."

So, as per CBS News, attempted murder and exercise of freedom of the press are just two equatable "skirmishes." Check.

Finkelstein lives in Ithaca, NY. 'Right Angle', the TV show he hosts, was recently named 'Best of the Best' among public-access shows in his area. Contact him at: mark@gunhill.net