King-Sized Mistake

"Editor-in-Chief Harry Siegel emails, on behalf of the editorial staff:

"New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization. Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group--consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editor Jonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions.

"We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding."

Shouldn't people who do the following be boiled in oil?

"It was not an announcement McDonald's Corp. wanted to make or fast food fans wanted to hear: French fries from the Golden Arches are actually less healthy than originally thought," says the Chicago Tribune . "Correcting a labeling error, the hamburger giant acknowledged Wednesday that the trans fat content of its large fries is one-third higher than previously stated - containing 8 grams of the heart-dangerous fat instead of the 6 grams listed on brochures and McDonald's Web site."

TV guests write letters of complaint all the time, but this one to Romenesko from Chicago Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea , about his appearance on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show, is extraordinary:

"Who wants to deal with someone whose backbone is as flimsy as his bow tie.

"Your personal and derogatory comment about me after my taped appearance on your show to discuss why the Chicago Tribune decided not to publish cartoons offensive to Muslims was cowardly. . . .

"It is one thing to disagree with me about the decisions we make in what we run and don't run in the Chicago Tribune. You even had the gall to say 'I respectfully disagree but I appreciate your coming on (to the show) to explain it.' That was when I was being taped, or as close as you could come to looking me in the eye.

"After the tape ran on your live show later and I (and the hundreds of millions of other Americans who don't watch Tucker) were otherwise occupied, you referred to my newspaper as 'cowardly' and to me personally as a 'corporate worm.' You didn't even have the guts to say that to me on tape."

Ouch. There's more.

Laura Ingraham is blogging (and doing her radio show) from Iraq. She's impressed with the troops.