Via, Instapundit, National Liberal Radio published a political cartoon that was derogatory towards the tea party movement. When conservatives demanded an apology from the supposed neutral news source the NPR executives declined. They argued:

“Opinion and satire are going to sting some members of the audience and soothe others,” NPR senior vice president for news Ellen Weiss told Shepard. “This one satire is not the only coverage on the topic and while it offends some members of the audience, I see no reason to remove it.”

I for one applaud NPR’s principled stand in favor of satire even when it may offend other people. We need more people with the courage willing to defend free speech even when others find it offensive. For example several years ago a Danish Newspaper got in trouble when it published cartons satirizing the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Many American publications refused to show the cartoons out of fear of hurting the delicate sensibilities of Muslims. Given NPR’s official position on satire towards tea party advocates, I’m confident they show the same kind of courage when showing the satirize version of the prophet of Mohammad during the cartoon controversy.

Senior news executives at NPR and its Web site, NPR.org, similarly decided against reproducing the cartoons.

Oh wait, they didn’t show the satirized version of the Mohammad cartoons. I know its crazy to suggest, but ever so often I think that NPR might not be objective in their news coverage.

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