Assaulting Freedom Everywhere, Really?

Assaulting Freedom Everywhere, Really?

P. Schultz

January 8, 2015

            Here is a sentence taken from an editorial in the NY Times, which of course has been read or heard in many places since the killings in Paris:

“A terrorist attack on the French satirical weekly is an assault on freedom everywhere.”

            Well, if in fact the attack in Paris is “an assault on freedom everywhere,” does this mean that the regime in Saudi Arabia is also an assault on freedom everywhere? Or does it mean that the regime in Uzbekistan is an assault on freedom everywhere? Or does it mean that the regime in Egypt is an assault on freedom everywhere? And does it mean that when the US government fails to respect the freedom of the press by trying to convict journalists and others who publish stuff the government does not want published, e.g., the Pentagon Papers or Snowden’s revelations, that this is an assault on freedom everywhere?

            In other words, what makes for “an assault on freedom everywhere?” Or is it to be assumed that when governments assault freedom this is not an assault on freedom everywhere? And if this is the assumption we are being encouraged to make, then this is a very strange situation indeed.