By Finian Cunningham January 15, 2015 ICH - Press TV - - The French so-called satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo – more accurately a hate-inciting, racist rag - has published its first post-massacre edition this week, with print sales going through the roof. Which just goes to prove the hoary old showbiz observation that “dying can be a good career move.” That dictum describes how washed-up artists and other celebrities are often rescued from obscurity following their death, with sales of old records or biographies benefiting from a surge in renewed public interest. The same would appear to be true for the previously obscure French political weekly magazine where 12 people, including senior editorial staff, were shot dead last week allegedly by gunmen claiming to be affiliated with the Al Qaeda/Takfiri terrorist network. (The network instigated and spawned by Western military intelligence for all sorts of covert operations, including regime change in Arab and Muslim countries.) The remaining staff at the Paris-based publication have this week produced an edition despite the trauma of the past seven days. But instead of the usual 60,000 copies, the publication has hit a record print run of 3 million. Some Paris news agents were reportedly sold out within minutes of opening. Online editions have also been translated into several languages in addition to the normal French version. And the magazine has reportedly been inundated with new subscriptions and donations from around the world amounting to over $1 million. Moreover, French newspapers and other international media have reprinted the front page of the magazine, although many major outlets, including American news channels CNN and ABC, as well as the New York Times, declined to print it (more on that in a moment). So, from a financially struggling magazine that catered for a minority of readers, many of whom were reactionary bigots, Charlie Hebdo has become an international sensation. On the back of its slain cartoonists, the publication can look forward to lucrative sales and a global readership. A good career move indeed. And presumably that cynical conclusion won’t be objected to by our Western satirists given their supposed commitment to freedom of expression. The stellar outcome for the French hate-rag is unfortunate. That’s because this magazine is not the paragon of free speech and intelligent political satire that has been made out by Western governments and the mainstream media since the killings last week by two gunmen, who by the way were well known to French state security services for their terror links.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:41:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015