I was shocked and disappointed to see your editorial cartoon in the Aug. 30 Herald.
For those who missed it, the cartoon depicted two goofy-looking “anarchists” reading a letter written to them the day before they and 450,000 other demonstrators were preparing to march through New York. The note thanked them in advance for “making chaos in the streets.”
“Wow!” exclaims one of the punks. “The American people are truly behind us!”
The letter was signed, “Sincerely, al-Qaida.”
Excuse me? Since when is peaceful demonstration equated with supporting terrorism? Aren’t the freedoms of speech and of assembly two of the very cornerstones of our so-called democracy? At a time when our constitutional rights are methodically being eroded by the Bush administration, I would think you, as esteemed members of the fourth estate, would be the first to commend those who stand up as free Americans and speak their minds.
In choosing to run this cartoon, you show precisely why some media-watchers are labeling today’s press corps as nothing more than “stenographers,” mindlessly reprinting the party line handed down from Washington, D.C.
Has The Herald been bought out by Halliburton or something? Or has it simply sold out to the politics of fear and intimidation?
WAYNE LEE
Anacortes
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