text: The thing people forget or are confusing in this whole issue is that that the people that are rioting over the Danish cartoons think that the governernment of Denmark has something to do with the printing/content of that paper. Here, is the US, decisions on what to print are made by editors based on what they personally deem 'newsworthy' or what will sell papers, providing it isn't libelous or slanderous. Freedom of speech means you cansay anything you want and I will defend your right to say it. I DO NOT have to agree with what you are saying to want you to be able to express it. I personally, thought the cartoons were in poor taste, as I would any cartoons of someone else's religion. But it isn't illegal in the US to print bad taste. See most all of our newspapers for reference...\n\nWhere there is no free speech/free press, what is in the papers is an extension of the government. Here, the press is frequently counter to the goverment. They help to keep them in check.\n\nHolocaust/racist cartoons don't get printed in the mainstream press not because they against the law, but because they will upset people and cause the paper not to be bought. The Islamic cartoons weren't printed here, either, for the same reasons.