"Under Times standards, we do not normally publish images or other material deliberately intended to offend religious sensibilities," the Times said of its refusal to print the Muhammad cartoons. "After careful consideration, Times editors decided that describing the cartoons in question would give readers sufficient information to understand today's story."
But the Times clearly didn't follow its own standards on Monday when it published a photograph of the picture of Benedict, which is currently on display at Milwaukee Art Museum, Mediaite's Alex Griswold says.
"Make no mistake, the portrait was 'deliberately intended to offend religious sensibilities,' at least to the same extent that Charlie Hebdo 'intended to offend,'" Griswold wrote. The Times easily could have described the picture and told the story, he said.
The clear reasoning for the discrepancy, Griswold said, is that extremist Muslims threaten to kill anyone who depicts Muhammad because it is considered sacrilegious. Christians are more likely to simply complain.
"The anti-Catholic art display was republished because the Archbishop of Milwaukee’s response was, 'Love your enemies, do good to those who might harm you, said Jesus. In the face of ridicule, we’ll continue to do our best to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.' The Charlie Hebdo images of Muhammad were not republished because the response from the offended parties was mass murder," Griswold said.