freedom of criticism

Cartoon caricatures have become a political issue, ranging from the depictions of Allah in the Danish press, to the caricature of the Obamas on the cover of The New Yorker, to a recent cartoon concerning the son of Nicolas Sarkozy in a French magazine, which was criticized as anti-semitic and which led to the firing of the cartoonist "Bob Sine". The defenders of these cartoons have raised the banner of free speech and freedom of expression and denounced critics as enemies of speech. This is profoundly muddled thinking on the part of free speech absolutists. Freedom of speech carries a risk, the risk of a negative reaction, i.e., criticism, which is also a form of speech that presumably is protected. I don't believe Sine's 'speech rights' are violated in this case. He published his cartoon. His firing does not prevent him from publishing similar cartoons in other venues (he just won't be able to do so in Charlie Hebdo). 'Anything-goes' libertarian absolutism often degrades into passive-aggressive claims of victimization. This appears to be the case with Sine and his supporters.