Houston Ash is right about the power of the media which is ever increasing with no checks and balances set in place.
I think that we can also add 'Marketing' to that equasion and also 'Product' and 'Brand'.
In Geelong we are staging the Union Cycliste Internationale 2010 World Championships over 5 days this week with the main business district shut down by road closures adn the resultant massive loss of trade to shop keepers.
Geelong is the host city, but, we are told, the event is being 'branded' world wide as a 'Melbourne Event' much to the dismay of The City of Greater Geelong residents. The reason?
In Victoria the brand 'Melbourne' is known throughout the world and the brand name 'Geelong' is unknown. So what it boils down to is that the residents of Geelong have been working their guts out for weeks to have Geelong known throughout the world, and the potential spin-offs are all all going to Melbourne. The official race website even has a video entitled "What to do in Melbourne" This is surely a case for Consumer Affairs, but I think that the media will prevail and the people of Victoria, when they hold any event they are really increasing the popularity of Melbourne as a place to visit.

Don't you think it amazing that muslims kill each other when they are protesting offences against islam. Why is that? I think their violence towards each other is the real story. I dont think islam should be out of bounds when criticising or lampooning religion. Its our right to express these things. The fact they react with violence toward us and each other is very telling.

I agree with the author's observations, however Pastor Jones and those like him will always be given a voice in a media that has to supply "news" 24/7.

What was wrong was not that Jones got a voice, mad as he apparently is, but that the cartoons were not published for everyone to see. The author is right to point out this double standard, and it remains unacceptable that religions of any kind are afforded special consideration by public media, for any reason.

For reasons I haven't yet fathomed, many religions, including the Christian, cannot deal with critiques of their beliefs and practices, and feel themselves to be above analysis. Must be because god is on their side.

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And besides, were they saying the same thing in 2006 when the same media organisations refused to show cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad? In that instance, the media were overwhelming asserting that they had a responsibility to self-censor. What has changed?

?? If the newspapers had published cartoons designed to be offensive to Muslims, they would have been participating in the reprehensible activity. If they had refused to report about the cartoon affair, that would be comparable to refusing to report about the Koran burning

We need more burning of the Koran and Bible and other religious texts, not less. It was cowardly of the press not to print the cartoons. Minister Jones may well be a crack pot, but it is the ability to criticise religion that brought us out of the dark ages. If we refuse to criticise Islam, then how will the practitioners of this religion ever realise that it is a load of crap (like all other religions) and escape from its primitive rules.
If Muslims want to go out and kill each other over such matters, then that is a tragedy. But it is not a good reason to censor such things. In fact it is a good reason to publicise them. If enough people burnt Korans, the Muslims would soon get used to it and stop being so sensitive and they may even see for themselves the benefits that come with the ability to criticise religion. Benefits that have placed the Western world at the forefront of civilisation. Freedom of speech is not something we should be ashamed of. The only limits that should be placed on this freedom is where it is inciting violence against others.

And if the media chose not to report the incidents and we were bombed then you would jump up and howl condemnation that it was all due to media being asleep or worse amiss in not warning the community of what was going on. The media cops it both ways.

Fore knowledge is being fore armed. The price of freedom is vigilance.

socratease