Je Suis Charlie, Too

摘要

We had hoped not to have to write about the death of journalists twice in as many weeks on these pages, but the hits just keep on coming. Someone remarked to a B&C staffer that they had heard about the murder of the cartoonists in France, but did not think of them as journalists. But from Thomas Nast to Garry Trudeau to the slain staffers at the French magazine, political cartoonists have a long, rich history of providing editorial comment and illumination. No one who saw a Herblock cartoon with a stubble-faced Nixon coming out of a sewer could doubt the power of the pen. We're pretty sure Senators at the time didn't. Charlie Hebdo's cartoons were offensive, and meant to be. And that is the speech most in need of defending in a free society.