Je Suis Charlie

January 7 marks the tenth anniversary of the Al-Qaeda terror attack on the Paris headquarters of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

A pair of French-born Algerian brothers murdered a dozen people, including eight members of the editorial staff, apparently because they objected to the paper’s mocking coverage of Islam and Muslims.

Charlie Hebdo, though, is an equal opportunity ridiculer of all religions, politicians, celebrities and phonies of all stripes. And there lies its strength.

The assassinations immediately triggered a global wave of support for Charlie Hebdo, and freedom of speech and the press. It became known as the “Je Suis Charlie” movement.

Thibaut Brutton, who heads Reporters Without Borders, marked the anniversary of the attack on Charlie Hebdo. "We pay tribute to this publication, which continues this universal fight for the right to inform and reminds us that democracies must not give an inch in the face of attempts to make it a crime to ‘defame religions," Brutton said. "Ten years after the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, these media professionals and their freedom to inform using the power of humour still need protecting, because all over the world, fanatics, dictators and powerful people continue to attack cartoonists with the aim of restricting the satirical media’s freedom."

America’s media are slated for a rough run for at least the next four years as Donald Trump, who has drawn a bulls-eye on the backs of news outlets that do not genuflect before him, returns to power.

The press could sure use of rebirth of the Je Suis Charlie spirit right about now.

Zuck caves to two masters. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is not only kowtowing to Donald Trump these days. He also is trying to get on the good side of America’s Shadow President, Elon Musk.

In his Jan. 7 post outlining why Facebook is chucking fact-checkers, Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, makes references to the great job that Musk has done at the X platform.

In ending the independent third-party fact-checking program in the US, Facebook will move to a “community notes” program. “We’ve seen this approach work on X—where they empower their community to decide which posts are misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see,” he wrote.

And “just like they do on X, Community Notes will require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings,” added Kaplan.

Like X, Facebook is getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate.

It’s going to be a wild west show in Zuckerberg land. Russian, Chinese and Iranian propagandists can't believe their good fortune. The owe a big debt of gratitude to Zuck for giving them the green light to spread their disinformation.

The big question: Will Mark join the fray by writing tens of posts each day, just like Elon?

But is making Facebook more like X the best strategy for the platform? Appeasing Trump/Musk is one thing. Destroying Facebook is another.

Bold PR move… Pope Francis has appointed the immigrant-loving Cardinal Robert McElroy as the next archbishop of Washington. Talk about walking into the lion’s den. In a bit of great timing, Pope Francis released the announcement on Insurrection Day, Jan. 6.

McElroy has a history with Trump. Shortly after Trump's election in 2016, the then-bishop of San Diego, described Trump as the “candidate of disruption.” He urged Catholics to become “disruptors.”

“We must disrupt those who would seek to send troops into our streets to deport the undocumented, to rip mothers and fathers from their families,” he said. “We must disrupt those who portray refugees as enemies rather than our brothers and sisters in terrible need.”

McElroy also urged Catholics to disrupt those “who train us to see Muslim men, women and children as forces of fear rather than as children of God.”

Through McElroy, Pope Francis will have a front row seat in Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants.

Once on the bright DC stage, McElroy has an opportunity to punch his ticket to heaven by preaching the need for his flock to show love compassion to immigrants.