From readers:

Jonah,
Remember your analysis on The Corner recently about how the The Collegian’s Tillman flap exposed Leftist hypocrisy and journalistic fascism? I loved your equivalent argument:
Indeed, if The Collegian “doesn’t hold back” from running controversial pieces that will upset their readers — good for them. I assume they would stand resolute after running a piece which said “Martin Luther King got what he deserved.” Or maybe, just maybe, somebody in the newsroom would have said, “Hey you know what? This piece adds almost nothing to the discussion and is needlessly inflamatory.” But I am sure the Titans of the First Amendment would gird their loins and say “Forsooth No! We must not cave into the sensitivities of our readers!” Or, as it says in the editorial, “We cannot, however, compromise the mission of our publication for the sake of ensuring the constant happiness of our readership.” Either defend the piece on the merits or don’t run it you chumps. But please stop trying to sound like you aren’t personally responsible for the decisions you make. That’s why you’re the editors.
Jonah, it seems to me that while I fully agree that CBS catered to their own obvious bias in publishing the pictures of troops committing crimes, they have every right to do so in a free market where they will live or (hopefully) die financially as the result of their actions. To suggest that they have some sort of call not to publish something you and I think is harmful to the war effort doesn’t hold water. Frankly, I think such relativist thinking harms NRO’s and the neo-Right’s chances of being a pillar of conservatism and not group of political opportunists, looking to debate every subtlety in order to see if it can somehow be made into their pet policy.
CBS can do what it will. In short, if we don’t apply basic Constitutional principles across the board, including that CBS will sleep in its own bed, we’ll end up arguing relativistic minutiae way down into the noise as the Left does everyday. And look what that’s got us.