Here's his answer, dammit

Dear Bruce Brugmann:

How are people supposed to know your position if you don't tell them what you think? Besides, the Guardian is constantly posturing on the war in Iraq. The Guardian even had an opinion piece recently that blamed Israel for the war in Lebanon. Why not just a small editorial against the attempt by Islamic extremists to intimidate the Western media? Your concerns about the negative effects of media monopolies ring a little hollow when the Guardian doesn't stand up when everyone else in town---except for the Chronicle!---is silent in the face of that intimidation. "Gratuitous logs to the fire" and "insensitive"? Pretty lame, Bruce.

Dear Robert,
Thanks for your question. There are lots of issues we are "silent" on, because we are a small SF paper with limited resources and lots to say about lots of things, mainly local. More: people who know us would know our position. Which was and is that we thought the cartoon assignment was a pretty dumb and insensitive one, but we would support the paper's right to publish the cartoons. However, we would not publish them in the Guardian to make the point, because others were publishing them and they were available on the web. No point in adding gratuitous logs to the fire.

[From Bruce Brugmann]