January 7 – A French Journalist on the Massacre of French Journalists; A Cartoonist on the Threats and Outrage That Comes With the Job of Mocking the Mighty and Powerful; A Pulitzer-Prize Winning Cartoonist on the Role of Satire

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the massacre of ten journalists and two policemen in Paris by radical Islamists claiming to represent al Qaeda. Alexandre del Valle, a French writer, journalist, political commentator, and the author of “The Syrian Chaos: Minorities and the Arab Spring Face Islamism”, joins us from Paris to discuss prior threats that he and the cartoonists who were killed had received from radical supporters of ISIS and al Qaeda living in France and the ideological roots of murderous fanaticism in the name of Islam which Alexandre del Valle traces to Saudi Arabia and other so-called allies of the United States.

Part 2

Then we speak with Scott Stantis, a cartoonist at the Chicago Tribune whose work is syndicated to over 125 newspapers by Tribune Media Services. We look into what kind of threats and outrage come with the job description of mocking the mighty and powerful, and whether the murder of colleagues in France by fanatics spraying bullets while shouting “God in great” is likely to deter cartoonists from lampooning religious extremism, examples of which are prevalent worldwide among those who claim to represent Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths.   

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and satirist Mark Fiore about the role of satirists and political cartoonists in society and how much self-censorship has already been adopted following the backlash from the Danish cartoonist’s depiction of the prophet Mohammed that caused an international furor resulting in a number of deaths. We examine the apparently insecure nature of religious beliefs that would cause a believer to kill in the name of a perceived insult to a deity whose teachings they claim to follow.