Jim: I try to refrain from excessive MSM-bashing, because it’s so easy, often trite, and usually pointless. But I think a lot of major papers and network news agencies ought to be taken to task for some awful reporting, and under-reporting of the Danish cartoon controversy.

Right now on Technorati, the top search terms are “Mohammed Cartoon”, “Jyllands-posten” (the paper that originally published the cartoons, and “Muslim cartoon.” Guess we know what people want to read about in the blogosphere. It’s a huge story. Right now, it’s THE story, from Washington to Philadelphia to London to Damascus to Tehran to Ankara to Amman.

In today’s Washington Post, there are a couple of stories on the controversy… on pages A15 and A16. (They did put this story on the front page earlier this week.) The Boston Globe editorialized against the cartoons, and won’t show them. CNN won’t show them. The New York Times also won’t run the cartoons, but they are running a picture of the “Holy Virgin Mary,” the painting that depicted Mary in elephant dung.

There is some good news. The Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Sun, two papers that I write for on occasion, have published them. ABC News showed them briefly. Fox News showed them.

If you want to follow this story, you pretty much have to get on the Internet and read the blogs. Most newspapers and television are falling down on the job, perhaps terrified of angry mobs outside their offices and their homes being burned to the ground.

“Hi there. We’re the MSM, and we’re irrelevant when it comes to the news you care about most. Now let me stare into space looking thoughtful.”

Cam: Not that it takes a lot to have more balls than the NYTimes (heck, I think Alessandro Moreschi might even qualify), but we also showed the cartoons on the video feed at NRAnews.com. I didn’t do it to titillate or enflame anybody’s passions. I did it because I don’t believe it’s possible to fully report on this story without showing the cartoons that are causing the controversy. The fact that the Times will show an image of Mary made out of elephant dung, yet not show one of these cartoons says a lot about the Times, the Muslim community, and the Christian community, in my opinion.

Marshall: Cam stole a little bit of my point, here, but this is a bar-blog, so I’m going to press on anyway…

Look, this is about news judgement. This has to be the most significant story making news right now. Muslims are perpetrating acts of violence all around the world in reponse to a couple of political cartoons. But the MSM in the U.S. long since checked their news judgement at the door.

Nevertheless, for the handful of outlets who are reporting the story, how can you do so and not show the cartoons? How can news consumer make any judgements about the news and its significance if they can’t see the the cartoons that set it all off? So, it seems to me, if you’re going to report the story (and you should), then you have to show the images.

Jim: One minute point on not running the images. You haven’t seen them on TKS, and I would prefer that OnTap stick to its core competencies (Anderson Cooper looking silly and hot women) and not run the cartoons… because I don’t want an angry mob outside my door. Having said that, my readers know where they can find ‘em, and I’ve linked to web sites and newspapers that have run them. That’s all the cahones I’m feeling the mood for today.