Canada's largest retail bookseller has removed all copies of the June issue of Harper's Magazine from its 260 stores, claiming an article by New York cartoonist Art Spiegelman could foment protests similar to those that occurred this year in reaction to the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
Indigo Books and Music took the action this week when its executives noticed that the 10-page Harper's article, titled Drawing Blood, reproduced all 12 cartoons first published last September by Jyllands-Posten (The Morning Newspaper).
In a memo obtained by The Globe and Mail that was e-mailed to Indigo managers yesterday about “what to do if customers question Indigo's censorship” of Harper's, employees are told to say that “the decision was made based on the fact that the content about to be published has been known to ignite demonstrations around the world. Indigo [and its subsidiaries] Chapters and Coles will not carry this particular issue of the magazine but will continue to carry other issues of this publication in the future.”
Read it all for yourself.
Guess Indigo is really brave and courageous. Of course they'll do the right thing and carry the truthful cartoons about Momo. Oh, yeah, suuuuure they will.
After all, they have the audacity to carry preciously few, if any, conservative-written and -oriented books, as, to my annoyance, I've noticed over they years when looking to actually buy the latest conservative book and found that they're never offering it (it's like a miracle that they carry Ann Coulter's works). Wonder why? Are they Liberals? Dippers? And are they now Dhimmis?
Not to mention they always seem to have a whole hell of a lot of leftist-oriented books praising leftists and bashing conservatives.
I would ask them: is this good for the bottom line? Do they really sell lots of moonbat books? And what makes them think that there aren't a lot of people who will definitely snap up conservative offerings?
Are they forgoing significantly larger profits, sacrificing capitalism at the altar of radical leftism?
I think Indigo is shooting itself in the foot with its apparent censorship and cowardice from revenue and profit standpoint. Oh, yeah, from a PR standpoint, too. Guess they'll have to sack their executives for being ineffective in bringing in the big profits.
No wonder... conservative websites like WorldNetDaily.com make a killing selling conservative books that the chickenshit liberal bookstores refuse to sell, regardless of profitability... and it's only a matter of when that their shareholders will figure this out and do something about it with their votes. Perhaps board members of the liberal bookstores will be sacked... never know... pity they're probably too liberally arrogant to see it coming. Just like the Canadian Liberals were so arrogant and dogmatically cocksure of themselves and their maddening ideologies of cavalier corruption, crime, greed, incompetence and blind social/legal reengineering performed merely to curry favor with their supporters, donors, lenders and voters (of whom there are few genuinely committed ones, we now know). Is it any wonder the people, who realized that the Liberals had no business whatsoever holding power, gave them the boot and even more now seem willing to kick them while they're down and sure as hell won't support them in the future?
I see an opening for a new, conservative-friendly bookstore to rise up and push out the "liberal" ones. If all or most bookstores at our malls happen to be liberal, meaning they have a monopoly on the in-person sale of books, then it'll be fun to watch them scramble to adapt and compete with the new competitive reality out there... or be forced into extinction.
For some relevant context, let's recall this TCS post.
What's so wrong about telling the truth? Why does the truth get censored, while lies are tolerated and even encouraged?
Update: I recommend this post by Anselm of Burton Front. He's got a great Momo cartoon for you!
