“publications that see large chunks of their readership drop away due to an offense to a community might self-censor to avoid further damage to their balance sheet. I dont think this threat outweighs the need of citizens to have a way to express their own viewpoints in opposition.”
There’s some evidence that one of the Danish papers involved had 3 years earlier refused to run some cartoons depicting Jesus unfavorably for fear of offending their Christian readers. So what other motive other than offending could they really have by running the Mohammed cartoons?
“Which leads to my final principle, and the one that the most people will have trouble swallowing: you have no right to be protected from offense.”
I agree, this is the critical building block of a democratic, liberal society that all radical fundamentalists do not accept. By radical fundamentalists, I don’t just mean muslims but the Christian-Talibans we have here in the United States. Exhibit A: the astro turf campaigns against indecency via the FCC