In Salon, cartoonist Doug Marlette, creator of the cartoon below, stands up for the First Amendment. Sample sentence: “Once these [Danish cartoons] became a major news story… I can see little reason — other than bodily fear, bottom-line self-preservation, and just poor judgment — that the U.S. media and the public officials entrusted with defending our freedoms wimped out so thoroughly when challenged to live up to their historic obligation under the First Amendment to keep the American public informed.”

He’s right, of course….and by the way, after the cartoon below was published, Marlette received thousands of death threats. What a surprise.