Charlie Hebdo not all it was cracked up to be

So it sounds like Charlie Hebdo was a mainstream publication that expressed it's middle-of-the-road opinions in the most obnoxious way possible.

Diane Johnstone writes from Paris on Counterpunch.com:

Personally, I never liked the provocative covers of Charlie Hebdo, where the cartoons insulting the Prophet – or for that matter Jesus – tended to be displayed.  A matter of taste.  I don’t consider scatological, obscene drawings to be effective arguments, whether against religion or authority in general....

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Charlie Hebdo was not in reality a model of freedom of speech.  It has ended up, like so much of the “human rights left”, defending U.S.-led wars against “dictators”.

In 2002, Philippe Val, who was editor in chief at the time, denounced Noam Chomsky for anti-Americanism and excessive criticism of Israel and of mainstream media.  In 2008, another of Charlie Hebdo’s famous cartoonists, Siné, wrote a short note citing a news item that President Sarkozy’s son Jean was going to convert to Judaism to marry the heiress of a prosperous appliance chain. Siné added the comment, “He’ll go far, this lad.” For that, Siné was fired by Philippe Val on grounds of “anti-Semitism”.  Siné promptly founded a rival paper which stole a number of Charlie Hebdo readers, revolted by CH’s double standards.