NYT: Still No Mohammad Cartoons, But Old Abu Ghraib Photo Fit to Print

Last week, the New York Times haughtily washed its hands of the controversial Mohammad cartoons, saying it had no intention of printing them because it was the paper’s policy to avoid “gratuitous assaults on religious symbols.” (Though that didn't prevent the paper from running a photo of "The Virgin Mary" painting clotted with elephant dung). Besides, the editorial sniffed, “the cartoons are so easy to describe in words.”

But while the Times may have passed on defending free expression in order to avoid protests from Muslims, it’s apparently not concerned about stoking Muslim opinion against the United States and the war in Iraq, judging by its decision today to run a three-year-old photo of a prisoner at Abu Ghraib.

Reports of additional prisoner photos from Abu Ghraib obtained by an Australian newscast inspired an article by David Stout in Thursday’s Times, “More Abu Ghraib Pictures Broadcast on Australian TV.” the Times also ran a photo from Reuters of a detainee in a restraint device to accompany the Page 18 story, at least in the New York Late Edition of the paper.