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USC Professor Calls New York Times Editor Coward For Refusing To Reprint Charlie Hebdo Cartoon

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A USC professor denounced The New York Times Friday over its coverage of the Paris terror attack, saying the paper's executive editor was a coward for refusing to reprint the Charlie Hebdo cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.

Journalism Prof. Marc Cooper posted the following on the Facebook page of Executive Editor Dean Baquet: "...Exactly how many people have to be shot in cold blood before your paper rules that you can show us what provoked the killers? Apparently 23 shot including 11 dead is not enough. What absolute cowardice. These MSM managers act as if they are running insurance companies, not news organizations."

Baquet, who used to lead coverage at the Los Angeles Times, posted an unusually blunt and profane response: "Dear Marc, appreciate the self righteous second guessing without even considering there might be another point of view. Hope your students are more open minded. A*****e."

Needless to say, it went viral.

Baquet says the paper has a policy to not "gratuitously offend" its readers.

Cooper has not yet commented on Baquet's response.

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