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Cartoonists don't owe apologies
(by Dave Lange - March 18, 2009)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Cartoonists don't owe apologies
A cartoon, according to Webster, is "a drawing, as in a newspaper, caricaturing or symbolizing, often satirically, some event, situation or person of topical interest." The dictionary also describes a cartoon as "a humorous drawing."
Satire, which holds "vices, follies, stupidities, abuses" and the like "up to ridicule and contempt," can be offensive. Humor can be lost in the translation. Cartoons typically are created by artists, and art is in the eye of the beholder.
So it's no wonder that editorial cartoons in newspapers have a tendency to draw strong responses.
That's what happened last month after cartoonist Sean Delonas' depiction of two police officers standing over the body of a bullet-riddled chimpanzee appeared in the New York Post. One of the officers says to the other, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
Two days earlier, a pet chimpanzee in Stamford, Conn., had attacked and severely mauled a friend of its owner. Police subsequently shot and killed the rampaging animal.
It would be understandable if loved ones of the unfortunate victim took personal offense over the insensitivity of cartoon. But it was civil-rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, film director Spike Lee and others with racial agendas who demanded that the cartoonist be fired and called for a boycott of the newspaper. Digging up an archaic racial slur, they surmised that the cartoon compared President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee.
It would not be satirical to compare black people to chimpanzees. Satire requires some thinking. Racial slurs are just plain stupid.
Post Editor-in-chief Col Allen called the cartoon "a clear parody of a current news event" that "broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy." Perhaps it was criticism of the stimulus bill by a conservative newspaper that the liberal protesters found offensive.
To understand editorial cartoons, familiarity with the news events they are intended to satirize helps, but even conscientious news consumers can miss the point.
Two weeks ago, we received several puzzled telephone calls about Ron Hill's cartoon in our Chagrin Valley Times that showed several animals covered with a black liquid waiting outside the Geauga Humane Society's Rescue Village. One onlooker whispers to another, "They're from Bainbridge."
Those were not African-American animals, the cartoon was not a commentary on race, and, fortunately, the calls did not come from Spike Lee or the Rev. Sharpton.
The lead story in the previous issue of our paper covered a Feb. 21 oil-well leak that spewed crude and brine over more than an acre of wooded land in Bainbridge. Another story in that issue told about the humane society's recent rescue of four llamas and how a wide variety of animals had been rescued in the past. Our cartoonist simply put animals and oil together, added two plus two and came up with four.
Oils spills should be held up to ridicule and contempt. And animals often are their victims.
Cartooning is not an easy job. Sometimes, cartoons succeed. Sometimes, they fall short. Sometimes, people just don't get it.
Rupert Murdoch, the publisher of the New York Post, eventually apologized to those who misinterpreted his newspaper's cartoon. But people who jump to wrong conclusions and blame others for their interpretations aren't entitled to apologies.
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