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JANUARY 31, 2006
The George W. Bush 2006 State Of The Union Drinking Game
By Will Durst
 What you need:
1. A
group of four taxpayers: including one white guy wearing a Suit.
Two people wearing jeans; one in a Work Shirt, the other in a
Dark Shirt, and one person wearing Rags. Stitched-together washcloths
are nice. Four are grouped around cocktail table within sight
of television. Newspapers on floor in front of television.
2. A shot glass per
person. Everyone brings their own and places on table. Suit picks
one first. Then Work Shirt. Then Dark Shirt. Suit takes last
one as well, and Rags gets a Dixie Cup with the top scissored
off
3. Five bucks apiece.
Everybody antes
4. Fondue pot with two
packages of Li'l Smokies stewing in barbecue sauce on table.
Preferably a sauce from Texas. Surrounded by :
5. 100 cocktail toothpicks.
The kind with the little American flags wrapped around the top
6. A large stash of
beer. Rags gets the cheapest stuff you can find, like Old Milwaukee
Light; Suit gets to drink whatever import he asks for; while
the jeans get to pick their favorite domestic brand, but they
are required to pay for all the beer and the Li'l Smokies.
Rules of the Game:
1. Whenever George W. uses the phrases: "national security,"
"tax relief," "activist judges" or "affordable
health care," drink two shots of beer.
2. Whenever George W. mentions the tragic events of 9/11, last
person to grab a toothpick, stand and salute must drink three
shots of beer. If you stab yourself in forehead with the toothpick,
drink two more shots.
3. If George W. actually says, "If Al Qaeda is calling you,
we want to know why," first person to finish a whole beer
gets to toss Li'l Smokies at any of the others until they finish
their beer. Use the toothpicks.
 4.
If George W. makes up a word like "strategerie" or
"deteriorize" drink four shots of beer.
5. If George W. speaks of Hamas and repeats his earlier statement
that "it's good to see people are demanding honest leadership,"
the first person to stop laughing gets to drink one shot of beer
then pummel Suit with empty shot glass. No head shots.
6. Whenever George W. talks about bipartisanship, the last person
to grab his throat in a choking motion has to eat four Li'l Smokies.
7. If either the Vice President Dick Cheney or First Lady Laura
Bush are caught napping, last person to sing "Wake Up Little
Susie, Wake Up," has to drink three shots of beer.
8. Predict the number of applause breaks. Person closest to correct
number may then force the other three to drink that number of
shots of beer in whatever ratio they wish.
9. Three shots of beer if he mentions New Orleans. Five shots
of beer if he mentions Brownie. Two full beers if he mentions
Abramoff.
 10.
Every time Tom DeLay is shown in the audience, take turns throwing
Li'l Smokies at the TV. Suit sits out. First face hit doesn't
have to drink two shots of beer. Every time Hillary Clinton is
shown in the audience, Suit throws Li'l Smokies at the TV. If
he hits her face, everyone else drinks two shots of beer. Use
the toothpicks.
11. Whenever George W. quotes the Bible, last person to fall
to their knees and cry "Hallelujah!" drinks two shots
of beer.
12. Whenever George W. smirks during a standing ovation, take
turns drinking shots of beer until the audience sits down. Do
it double time if his shoulders shake with silent laughter.
EXTRAS:
· Whoever can correctly identify in advance the person
giving the Democratic Response doesn't have to watch it.
· Suit gets to kick Rags hard, once if George W uses a
heartfelt story of a pulling yourself up by your bootstraps to
illustrate a point, twice if the regulation of large cardboard
boxes is mentioned as a security precaution. Rags gets 15 seconds
to kick the Suit if Bush reveals the subject of the anecdote
is in the audience. Thirty seconds if he or she is sitting next
to Harriet Miers. One full minute if she's sitting next to an
astronaut.
· Suit takes home $20.
· Leftover beer, Li'l Smokies and fondue pot go home with
Rags.
Political Comic Will Durst needs a volunteer to wear the suit.
Catch The Will & Willie Show,
weekdays 7- 10:00 a.m. on KQKE. 960 AM, San Francisco or www.quakeradio.com.
Will Durst is a political comedian who has performed around the
world. He is a familiar pundit on television and radio. See www.willdurst.com
for additional information on Will's performance schedule. His
two CDs are available at laugh.com. Email Will at willdurst@sbcglobal.net.
©2006 Will Durst.
Cartoons by Cam Cardow of the Ottawa Citizen, Scott Stantis of
the Birmingham News and Clay Bennett of the Christian Science
Monitor
VISIT
OUR STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS CARTOONS!
JANUARY 30, 2006
TODAY'S MUHAMMAD CARTOON NEWS
CBS
News reports today that masked gunmen from the "Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigade," a part of the Fatah party that was defeated
in the recent Palestinian elections, took over a European Union
office in the Gaza Strip. The men, who were armed with hand grenades,
automatic weapons and anti-tank launchers, were protesting the
publication of the Muhammad cartoons.
They demanded an apology from Norway and Denmark and later left
the EU offices.
Former President Clinton chimed in on the cartoon controversy
on the side of the outraged Muslims. Clinton
is quoted describing the cartoons as "apalling,"
saying,
"None of us are totally free of
stereotypes about people of different races, different ethnic
groups, and different religions ... there was this appalling
example in northern Europe, in Denmark ... these totally outrageous
cartoons against Islam."
Read
my column with background on the Muhammad cartoon controversy
here.
See the offending cartoons here.
JANUARY 29, 2005
TULSA JOB IS FILLED
The Tulsa World announced today that they have hired
Doug
Marlette to fill their editorial cartoonist position that
was left open when they fired their previous cartoonist, David Simpson,
for plagiarism. The Tulsa paper had sent out a call for applicants and surely
was bombarded with portfolios. Marlette is a Pulitzer Prize winner
who has been drawing for the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida,
after leaving Newsday in New York. Marlette works remotely
from his home in North Carolina. See Doug Marlette's cartoon archive.
 MUHAMMAD CARTOONS
UPDATE
Here are a few new snippets on the Jyllands-Posten, Denmark Muhammad
Cartoons controversy that we've been following here.
Saudi
Arabia has recalled their ambassador to Denmark because of
the cartoons. The Jordanian parliament called for the cartoonists
to be punished, in this quote
from the IFEX site:
In a 24 January statement, the Jordanian
parliament said the cartoons "constitute a cowardly and
reprehensible crime" and urged the Norwegian and Danish
authorities "to express their condemnation and disapproval
of this hateful crime and to punish the perpetrators and instigators."
It also called on "parliaments, governments and civil society
organisations in the Muslim world to take a firm position on
this evil, which strikes at the sentiments of the Arabo-Muslim
nation."
(Thanks to the Comics
Reporter for these links.)
Two newspapers in Norway have posted the cartoons and one took
them down from their web site in response to threats. Jyllands
Posten reporter Anders Raahauge e-mailed to tell me about another
Danish paper that ran a bad painting of a moose by a lake, with
a caption that reads, "The Prophet Muhammad mooing by the
forest lake." Apparently this also raised a storm of protest.
In a news report today, Al
Jazeera reports that the world's two main Muslim organizations
are seeking a United Nations resolution, backed by possible sanctions,
in response to the cartoons. Al Jazeera also reports on a number
of efforts to boycott Danish goods in Muslim countries, including
a call for boycott from parliament members in Bahrain where Danish
dairy products were set ablaze in a protest last Friday.
Read my column with
background on the Muhammad cartoon controversy here.
See the offending cartoons here.
Cartoon above right by Tab of the Calgary Sun
JANUARY 24, 2006
I just received this comment from Bro Russel who run the Cartoonists
Relief Network ...
Daryl,
I really appreciated Your January 7 blog
comments about the Cartoon Jihad. I call them the "European
12", the cartoonists who drew cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed
for the Jyllands Posten in Denmark. We have sent out a press
release supporting the cartoonists. We also pointed out that
ironically, the critics of the cartoonists are able
to exercise their free speech to demand that the free speech
of others be throttled.
That the UN human rights commission came down on the side of
tolerating religious diversity instead of supporting the
core human survival value of freedom of expression underscores
the growing frustration with that UN body. It continues
to become a curiouser and curiouser puppet show for the
thugs and brigands of the world.
I'm in touch with some of the cartoonists themselves and they
seem to be weathering the storm well enough. I really think it
is the cartooning-story-of-the-decade, reflecting as it does
the greater clash of world views between Islamic and Western
cultures.
Bro Russell
Cartoonists Rights Network
JANUARY 23, 2005
IN DEFENSE OF THE TELEMARKETERS CARTOON CONTEST
I received the following missive from Carl Nelson, in response
to my criticism of of the Contact Center Cartoon Contest
below. Would you like to comment?
Send a note to us here; we'll
post the best ones in the blog.
Daryl,
Thanks for the visibility. Keep up your great cartooning emails.
I got the encouragement for the call center contest from
Lynn Parisi, the marketing wiz and wife of cartoonist Mark Parisi
who does 'Off the Mark.' The goal of the call center cartoon
contest is to generate money for cartoonists.....a most
noble cause today.
Unlike the noble population contest, the call center cartoon
contest is not an effort to influence cartoonists.
Eligible cartoons do not need to be published; just good according
to the judges -- KAL, RC Harvey and me. KAL has been
the long-time editorial cartoonist for the Baltimore Sun and
the is the editorial cartoonist for the Economist. RC Harvey
is the well known cartoon historian and critic. I am the
virtually unknown executive director of the Cartoon Art Association,
its mission is to perserve, protect and promote the art and journalism
of cartooning.
Carl, speaking like Bob Dole, is also an associate member
of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and an associate
member of the National Cartoonist Society, where he wants
to do anything that is legal and in his power to help Daryl and
the other cartoon members. At CAA, while its specific
mission has nothing to do with promoting population issues, we
are very concerned about people.
The three judges will select the top 50+ for display and also
give 1/2 of the prize money to their top three favorites....democracy
will give away the rest of the money in the popularity contest by
call center executives. Distribution of the prize money by popular
vote allows for all the selected cartoons displayed to share
in the prize money rather than most cartoon contests that have purses go
to just a few winners. Besides the noble voting process, the
contest is fun and spotlights editorial cartooning in new
venues.
The history of contests, influencing peddling schemes is grand,
as you indicate. The fraternity of cartoonists in
the United States was virtually established by influence
peddling schemes....WWII had the biggest impact.....:
Two notable examples.....
--Cartoons Against the Axis gathered
120 of America's best creating a touring cartoon art exhibit
that raised money for U.S. Defense Bonds.
--USO entertainment (made famous by
Bob Hope) first featured cartoonists because they were the
celebrities of the 1950s. Cartoonists enjoyed the travel with
their peers so much that they created the National Cartoonists
Society.
Daryl, Keep up the great work.
Carl Nelson
JANUARY 21, 2006
ABRAMOFF AND CARTOON INFLUENCE PEDDLING
A number of cartoonists (myself included)
have been contacted by Abbe David Lowell, the attorney for infamous
lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, wanting to purchase Abramoff cartoons.
There
have certainly been a lot of Abramoff cartoons, and none
of them are complimentary to Abramoff. I suppose these will go
into a "trophy case of infamy."
Usually requests for original cartoons
come from celebrities or politicians who like how they, or their
issue, was depicted in a cartoon. Forbes Magazine magnate,
Steve Forbes, famously offered to purchase every cartoon depicting
him from his presidential run - an offer that likely encouraged
some cartoonists to draw more Forbes cartoons, and perhaps, more
complimentary Forbes cartoons.
There is a strange history of cartoonists
being paid to draw cartoons on particular subjects. In the 1950's
and early 1960's, the CIA paid cartoonists in Latin America $50
(then a huge sum for these cartoonists) for each cartoon, that
they drew and had published, that favored the USA and put down
Communism.
By and large, cartoonists are independent
iconoclasts who would reject any arm-twisting influence - even
when the pressure and rewards comes from their own editor. There
are some efforts to influence cartoonists that are noble. The Population Media Center
offers an $8,000 prize for the best cartoon portraying the relationship
between human population growth and issues affecting the quality
of life worldwide, such as environmental degradation, status
of women, poverty, biodiversity ... I like this approach because
these issues rarely make the headlines as the urgent issue of
the moment, and are therefore are seldom drawn by cartoonists.
It is a noble effort to encourage cartoonists to draw on these
topics.
At the other
end of the contest spectrum is the Contact Center Cartoon
Contest, this contest offers $10,000 in prizes for cartoons
that portray poor, downtrodden telemarketers. The rules are described
as this:
Winning entries will be cartoons that
make call center customer service representatives think, be inspired
or chuckle (as) a group who labors in high-stress, under-paid,
entry-level jobs.
Cartoons should portray one of the following
topics relating to contact/call centers: call center agent productivity,
customer service, help desks, customer relationship management,
telemarketing, web self service, outsourcing and telephony technologies
such as routing, interactive voice response, workforce management
and call monitoring systems.
The winner will be judged by convention
attendees who will vote for their favorite cartoon at the Call
Center Demo and Conference February 6-8 in Austin Texas. I entered
the cartoons below from cartoonists in my syndication group -
somehow, I don't think these cartoons are what the sympathetic,
hard working, misunderstood telemarketing conventioneers will
appreciate.
Cartoons by Mike Lester
by Daryl Cagle
by Cam Cardow
by Larry Wright
by Mike Keefe
by Mike Lane
Telemarketer barf cartoons by Alen Lauzan
JANUARY 16, 2006
DON'T MUG A CARTOONIST
New Zealand cartoonist Chris Slane sent me an interesting news
item about Aussie cartoonist Bill "Weg" Green who was
confronted by a robber in his own carport. After trying to assault
Weg, the robber stole Weg's bicycle and escaped. Weg then drew
a detailed caricature of the assailant from memory and gave the
drawing to police who instantly recognised that they had already
arrested the man and were holding him in the back of a "divisional
van." The mugger faces an upcoming court date. Moral: don't
mug a cartoonist.
JANUARY 10, 2006
Your Reactions to the Tribune Company's Weitman
Many of our readers were unhappy with the form-letter e-mail
response they received from the Tribune Company's Gary Weitman.
Here are some more of your responses. You can see Weitman's form-letter here. Read about the
AAEC's cartoon protest here. See the protest cartoons here. You
can e-mail Weitman by clicking here.
Mr... Weltman:
Amazing! Just exactly HOW do you propose
"editorial cartoonists" continue to earn an honest
living? The Tribune ( i.e. you) purchase from "other sources"
for Editorial Cartoonist who are Pulitzer winners, yet your papers
and many others are not employing them under your Editorial Staff
?
This is the point of this entire exercise, or are you and the
Tribune tributaries too stupid or dense to realize this??? The
cartoonists need JOBS. When you "purchase these from"other"
sources, this does NOT provide the daily needs of these interesting
and varied talented folks and their families!
I do wonder when the papers will figure out how to replace YOU
with a computer or combine your limited resourcefulness with
another position! Then, perhaps, you will understand this entire
dilemma.
Karla Dent
Dear Mr. Weitman:
I am disappointed by your response to my email about the policies
of your papers regarding political cartoonists. Your attempt
to evade responsibility didn't work. Suppose a school district
had no high school graduates because American History was no
longer taught in the school system and seniors could not pass
the competency test required for graduation. Would you allow
the Superintendent of Schools to get away with saying that none
of the problem was his fault because the principal of each school
made the decisions about what was included in the curriculum?
I think not.
Sadly,
Kris Dietrich
Re: your lame response
to the eliminating, firing, or whatever at the Tribune papers
of political cartoonists: You're just full of S*%#. . Good spin
though: you should work for the Bush administration.
But then again, maybe you already are.
Bye to the tribune papers.
Tom Ward
H.L. Mencken, the venerable
editor of the Baltimore Sun, once said: "Give me a good
cartoonist and I can throw out half the editorial staff."
I recommend you throw out the editorial staff and get one good
cartoonist. That should be equivalent, especially as far
as worth and value.
Blather2
I am appalled at your elimination
of major cartoonists from your staffs at your major newspapers.
Editorial cartoonists are a historical tradition in U.S.A. Newspapers
and are important to a majority of your readers because of the
special insight they give to the major news stories of the day.
I will be cutting my subscriptions to several of your newspapers
if you do not rethink this greedy move on your part to "save
a penny and lose a pound."
Jerry Anderson at a U.S.A. University
Having
syndicated cartoons is not sufficient - there are more than 14
good editorial cartoonists in the country, not to mention that
new ones who are not yet famous need support too.
The editorial cartoon is one of the "must read" parts
of any newspaper that I buy. In choosing between papers with
and without editorial cartoons, I will ALWAYS take the one
with the editorial cartoon, whether I agree with the cartoon
or not.
Cutting editorial cartoon positions may save a little money in
the short term, but I believe that it will lose much more
in the long term. If you plan to retire in a year or 2 and don't
mind leaving behind a failing wreck, then you may have made the
right decision for yourself, but certainly not for the newspapers
Alan Savan
While the decision on whether
or not to have an editorial cartoonist on staff may be
an individual newspaper's decision, there certainly appears to
be some company-wide pressure to eliminate those positions as
part of an effort to cut costs, so why don't you be honest about
what you're doing?
Actually, I believe your move is very short-sighted. As a youngster
I was first drawn to newspapers by the "funny papers".
They were the first thing I read every day and it was a short
jump from there to the editorial cartoons. I didn't always understand
what they were all about back then, but I appreciated the funny
drawings and caricatures of public figures. It was another short
jump from there to the regular news stories and editorials. The
cartoons helped me understand the issues discussed in the articles
and the articles helped me appreciate the deeper meaning behind
the cartoons. In short, the cartoons got me hooked on reading
newspapers which I have been doing ever since.
I'm sure there are a lot of people like me. If you're trying
to preserve newspapers why would you want to cut off a common
means for attracting new readers?
Randy Prier
Go ahead, cut the cartoonists.
It makes you look like you kowtow to the current political secret
police coming out of Washington. Newspapers are a dying breed
anyway. You've just put in the last stake.
Jerry Piekut
Is this another step in the rise of the Fourth Reich?
Ruth & Bill Caldwell
I received a short note from Mr. Gary
Weitman. It is the same note as was sent to many other people.
It contained little new information. The bottom line is we are
loosing our Political Cartoonist. The is will be very negative
for the news papers in the long run. One of the first things
I do each day is look for the political cartoon. We need these
people to poke fun at out "heroes" like Tom Delay,
Richard Nixon, Ted Kennedy, the courts and the the right and
the left. There are few editorial features that will tackle the
events of the day like the cartoonist will. With all the revenue
the Tribune company had last year (5.73 Billion dollars). You
and your company are making a huge mistake with this policy and
it will come back to haunt you in the end. I think it is time
to rethink how much media a media company can be allowed to hold
control over. I think if they own a TV station in an area maybe
they should be prohibited from owning a new paper in the same
area. I think the FCC needs to rethink this issue. You and Ruppert
Merdoch need to be reined in a bit. When you control all the
media in a market and you behave in the manner you do you need
controls set in place to protect the public. I think you will
see a ground swell of protest against the Tribune Co and its
subsidiaries. Remember that there are other news papers and the
internet to get the news. Take a hint guys. Take a look at your
stock High $42.17 now it is at $31.31 this afternoon. Maybe there
is a reason for this drop this year. Good Luck folks.
Ron Parker
More responses here.
JANUARY 7, 2006
Cartoon Jihads
By Daryl Cagle
Nothing generates anger in the Muslim world
like a cartoon. The most recent cartoon-Jihad comes from a Danish
newspaper that printed cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
The Jyllands Posten, Denmark's biggest newspaper, has been bombarded
by street protests, international diplomatic incidents and death
threats against cartoonists who have gone into hiding, fearing
for their lives.
I'm fond of the Jyllands Posten newspaper
because they run my cartoons. Reporter Anders Raahauge wrote
the report below to cartoonist Doug Marlette who alerted me to
the ongoing events:
 "To
test the limits of self-censorship, we asked all Danish cartoonists
to draw Muhammad. We were provoked by the fact that a Danish
author of children's books couldn't find any illustrators for
his planned, decidedly non-polemic book on the prophet. Twelve
cartoonists dared.
"There has been a great uproar. 5000
Danish Muslims protested in the streets of Copenhagen, 12 Muslim
ambassadors demanded that our Prime Minister should take immediate
and harsh action against (us) which he firmly declined (to do).
The ambassadors then complained to the "Organization of
the Islamic Conference"; there has been a general strike
in Kashmir, and a political party in Pakistan, with Danish affiliations,
has put a bounty on the heads of the 12 Danish cartoonists: 50,000
Danish Kroners for each execution."
Danes treasure their press freedoms. The
newspaper ran the Muhammad drawings as part of an article about
self-censorship in the press, noting that even with a free press
defined by law, there are other constraints regarding what can
or can't be published. The Danish prime minister refused to meet
with ambassadors from 11 Islamic countries, led by Egypt, who
objected to Denmark's "smear campaign" and demanded
punitive action against the newspaper. The ambassadors then announced
a general boycott against Denmark. The United Nations weighed
in, conveying sympathies to the offended Islamic countries. Last
week, in an apparent concession to the angry Muslims, Danish
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged Danes to exercise
their rights to free speech without inciting hatred against Muslims.
The Danish government had the prime minister's words translated
into Arabic and distributed to Middle Eastern countries in the
hope of easing the diplomatic crisis. Jyllands Posten's editor-in-chief
is quoted as saying, "the next step will be giving orders
to suppress the newspaper."
I found the offending cartoons on the web;
they are disappointingly dull and it is hard to see how they
could make anyone angry (see the cartoons here). Muslims consider
any graphic depiction of Muhammad to be taboo. For the Muslim
countries, it is a matter of imposing their sensibilities upon
the infidels in the West. For the Danish "infidels"
at Jyllands Posten, it is a matter of press freedom and an unwillingness
to accept restrictions on an absolute and treasured freedom,
which includes the right to offend anyone they choose to offend.
In America we take our freedom to offend seriously; we would
never threaten the lives of artists who paint the Virgin Mary
with animal dung, or put a crucifix into a jar of urine -we limit
the argument to whether our National Endowment for the Arts will
subsidize these artists.
Depictions of Muhammad are not the only
cartoons that inspire Islamic rage. Montreal Gazette cartoonist
Terry "Aislin" Mosher had a similar experience. In
response to a deadly terrorist attack against foreign tourists
in Luxor, Egypt, Mosher drew a dog wearing Arab headgear; the
dog was labeled "Islamic Extremism" and the caption
read, "With Apologies to Dogs Everywhere." Mosher and
his newspaper received a flood of Muslim threats and vitriol
in a Jihad similar to the situation in Denmark.
 A
cartoonist whom I syndicate, Sandy Huffaker, drew a cartoon showing an
Iraqi holding a book titled, "The Koran for Dummies,"
and an American soldier asks, "Anything in there about GRATITUDE?"
I was bombarded by many thousands of e-mails in a flame campaign
instigated by the Council
on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which asked readers
on their Web site to e-mail me. The e-mails were hysterical,
filled with colorful threats and demands that I fire and punish
Huffaker. I posted a big batch of the emails on my Web site and
asked my own readers to respond to CAIR. (My Web site has a rather
large audience, so I flamed CAIR back.) Being on the other end
of a flame campaign may have been a new experience for CAIR,
because their flame campaign against me stopped abruptly -or
more likely, CAIR saw that the hysterical rantings of their supporters,
displayed on my Web site, did not speak well for their cause.
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette of the Tallahassee Democrat,
found himself blasted by a CAIR e-mail Jihad when he drew a cartoon
with the caption, "What Would Muhammad Drive?" The
drawing showed a man wearing Arab headdress and driving a Ryder
truck (a reference to Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh).
In response to an inquiry from Jyllands Posten, Doug writes,
"I was used to negative reactions from religious interest
groups, but not the kind of sustained violent intensity of the
Islamic threats. The nihilism and culture of death of a religion
that sanctions suicide bombers, and issues fatwas on people who
draw funny pictures, is certainly of a different order and fanatical
magnitude than the protests of our home-grown religious true
believers."
 Marlette
continues, "As a child of the segregated South, I am quite
familiar with the damage done to the "good religious people"
of my region when the Ku Klux Klan acted in our name. The CAIR
organization that led the assault (on me), describes itself as
a civil rights advocacy group. Among those whose "civil
rights" they advocated were the convicted bombers of the
World Trade Center in 1993. They cannot be taken seriously. For
many of those who protested my cartoon, recent émigrés,
many highly educated, it was obvious that there was not that
healthy tradition of free inquiry, humor and irreverence in their
background that we have in the west. There was no Jefferson,
Madison, Adams in their intellectual tradition. Those who have
attacked my work, whether on the right, the left, Republican
or Democrat, conservative or liberal, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish
or Muslim, all seem to experience comic or satirical irreverence
as hostility and hate. When all it is, really, is irreverence.
Ink on paper is only a thought, an idea. Such people fear ideas.
Those who mistake themselves for the God they claim to worship
tend to mistake irreverence for blasphemy."
Muslim countries expect the press in Denmark
to suppress cartoons that would be offensive to them, but they
don't extend the same cartoon courtesy to others that they demand
for themselves. Cartoons in the Arab press are typically so ugly
and racist that American audiences have never seen anything like
them. Middle Eastern cartoon venom is targeted toward Israel,
often depicting Jews with hooked noses and orthodox garb, sometimes
with fangs and bloody teeth, often in the roles of Nazis. The
Jews are sometimes shown crucifying Arabs in a "Jews killed
Jesus" scenario, or enacting their own concentration camp
Holocausts on their neighbors, along with their henchmen, the
Americans. The cartoons are designed to be as offensive to Jews
as possible, and are seen as nothing out of the ordinary by Middle
Eastern newspaper readers.
Unless we defend our funny little drawings
with the same zeal that we see from the victims of our irreverence,
we'll continue to see our freedoms constricted by the loud voices
of those we offend.
See the offending cartoons here.
JANUARY 6, 2005
LATE CANNED RESPONSE
We've started receiving e-mails from our readers who are forwarding
a form-letter from the Tribune Company's Gary Weitman responding
to your complaints about the cartoonist job losses at Tribune
Company papers. Weitman was quoted in the press saying that e-mail
from readers was important to him and that he would respond to
each one.
I genuinely believe that these were all
spat out in response to your post that he was ignoring the emails.
One of my greatest pet peeves revolves around customer service,
and this cookie-cutter response is insulting and disingenuous.
I have posted this assault on cartoonists on my blog, and I intend
to re-post the article frequently.
Thank you for bringing humor to life,
Sheri E. Brooks
Here is the common response being sent
to everyone, as it was sent to me by one of our readers:
From:
Boyer, Angie
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 10:15 AM
Subject: FW: Responding to your e-mail on editorial cartoonists
I just thought you would like to see the response from Mr. Weitman.
Somehow, I have a feeling this is the same response pretty much
everyone has been receiving. Its such a shame when you write
a well thoughtout e-mail expressing your disgust with someone
and all you get back is some e-mail that sounds like a broken
record. One would think that if a VP was trying to save face,
he could at least try some creativity for his stupidity.
Angela M. Boyer
From:
Weitman, Gary
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 11:30 AM
Subject: Responding to your e-mail on editorial cartoonists
Thank you for your e-mail.
Tribune has always had great respect for the profession of editorial
cartooning. Our newspapers make their own, independent decisions
about running editorial cartoons and employing editorial
cartoonists. Some have cartoonists on staff and some purchase
syndicated material from a variety of sources. In fact, one of
our subsidiaries, Tribune Media Services, syndicates material
from 14 Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonists to newspapers
across the country, including all of Tribune's 11 newspapers.
Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, none of our
newspapers has eliminated the editorial cartoon from its pages.
Thanks again for your e-mail. I hope this explanation is helpful.
Gary Weitman
VP/Corporate Communications
Tribune Company
Note from Cagle: The Tribune Company's
syndicate, Tribune Media Services (TMS, who has been a good friend
to our site and who syndicates cartoons to us) syndicates 14
editorial cartoonists, 7 of whom are Pulitzer Prize winners --they
used to syndicate more but TMS has also been shrinking their
cartoonist list. Cartoonists who have recently left TMS include
Steve Sack, Ann Telnaes and Dick Wright. Three Tribune papers
who have a rich history of editorial cartooning no longer have
staff cartoonists, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times
and The Baltimore Sun. After firing their cartoonist, Michael
Ramirez, The Los Angeles Times frequently runs with no editorial
cartoon at all, and they have cancelled almost all of their subscriptions
to syndicated editorial cartoons in response to corporate pressure
to cut costs. Today's cartoonless Los Angeles Times has a photograph
of Ariel Sharon where the cartoons used to be.
Angela's Letter to Weitman ...
Mr. Weitman,
As a young woman training to become a lawyer, I do not often
get time to read the news. Yet, I do take the time to read
the political cartoons every day. These cartoons remind me of
the major events going on in our world. I do not always agree
with a cartoon, but it challenges me to think on both sides of
the issue.
As a future defender of justice, rights, and the American Constitution,
I believe the newspapers are also supposed to be the ones that
fight against the government to maintain our freedom of speech.
The government is typically the ones who do the censoring of
our American public. But, somehow, the Newspaper companies seem
to think that they should bow down to the all-mighty dollar and
forget the rights that they are supposed to stand up for. In
our American history, it is the journalists who make sure the
public gets the whole story. So you start with the cartoonists,
what next the journalists? While you're hacking away to ensue
the public does not get the story, why don't you just start taking
out journalists like Christiane Amanpour, who has won 8 Emmys
for her reporting, who risk their lives to get the story out.
We don't need to pay journalists like her to ensure the stories
about the "bad guys" get out. After all, you don't
really care about the public and the information it should get
to ensure our government is fair. You're bowing to a much higher
idol, the dollar.
Let me leave you with one last thought Mr. Weitman, is your idol
of the dollar going to be that great when Americans turn away
from the newspaper, b/c like the government they no longer are
getting the freedom of speech? I don't think so.
Angela M. Boyer
Creighton University
School of Law- Class of 2007
Below, another reader responds to Weitman's
canned response:
Dear Mr. Weitman,
I note that you attempt to placate my ire in two ways. First,
you attempt to redirect it to the individual papers, rather than
yourself. I find this cowardly tactic spurious at best
are you not in charge of policies at your own company? While
I am sure that it is your policy to leave the editorial cartooning
staffing decisions up to the individual papers, the real question
is why you don't change that policy and direct those papers to
employ editorial cartoonists? Surely you do not suggest that
if you told your papers to employ editorial cartoonists that
they would defy your policy and refuse to hire them. Such a suggestion
would be absurd. Second, you have tried to conciliate by assuring
me that no paper has removed entirely its editorial cartoons
from its pages. However, is not the elimination of career opportunities
as an editorial cartoonist merely the first step on the road
to removal of those cartoons from your papers altogether? Won't
it be an easy decision some time in the near future to say that
the cartoons must be removed, since those remaining Pulitzer-prize
winning cartoonists have retired, and there is no one to take
their place? Moreover, while continuing syndication from 14 Pulitzer-prize
wining cartoonists at your papers is appreciated, such activity
so severely limits the market that new, fresh, and different
points of view have no outlet. Editorial cartooning has a long
history in this country. More than providing some humor and irony
on political and social issues, it provides a different way of
(quite literally) viewing those issues. How can we fulfill
the purpose of the editorial cartoon to spark discourse
about, exploration of, and involvement in our world without
a variety of viewpoints from across age, gender, and class lines.
While I am sure that you received a plethora of email not
the handful that you claimed in the news your form email
does little to assuage my dismay at your decision to hamper development
of the editorial cartooning industry. In fact, given the large
market share of your papers, your decision may well have sounded
editorial cartooning's death knell. Mr. Weitman, you have ink
on your hands.....
Sincerely,
Renée L. Hildreth
JANUARY 5, 2006
CARTOONIST MOVING DAY
Michael
Ramirez, who worked as the editorial cartoonist for the Los
Angeles Times until December 31st, just started a new job as
cartoonist and senior editor for Investors Business Daily, congratulations
are due to Michael. Also we learned today that Nick Anderson, the Pulitzer Prize winning
cartoonist for the Louisville Courier Journal is moving to a
new gig at the Houston Chronicle. Congratuations to Nick. The
cartoonists will be dusting off their resumes and sending them
to the Courier Journal today, I'm sure.
JANUARY 4, 2006
DRAW? DIE!
The cartoons of Muhammad that generated death threats and international
diplomatic rows can be seen here.. Take a look. I think they
are a bit disappointing. Read
more here.
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