Clueless in Washington

Last week, I e-mailed Lucy Dalglish, the Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP). I asked her if she was as troubled by the Index article (see below for more) as I was. Perhaps, I suggested, Dalglish could speak out publicly against the Index piece, and come to the defense of Theo van Gogh. (Theo, it must be noted, is no longer around to defend himself. An Islamic extremist with a gun and a butcher knife took care of that.) I received Dalglish's reply today, and it turns out that she's never even heard of Index on Censorship. She seems to think it's just some fringey crackpot group, instead of one of the world's two or three most prominent clearinghouse-type operations concerning free speech. Dalglish also told me she wasn't getting involved, as she didn't want to "draw more attention to the anti-van-Gogh article."

Ma'am, with all due respect, it's a little late for that.