Tweety to cover "the cartoon" from today's N.Y. Post right now

[Botany]

The cartoon showed me racism and a metaphor for Presidential assassination.

I called the post today and told them I was pissed.

[DesertFlower]

1. i saw it.

it's appalling.

[Captain Hilts]

2. It's terrible. On so many levels. nt

[alwysdrunk]

3. I still say I don't think it was intended that way

It would just be too stupid of the guy to make a cartoon like that. No one would think it was funny, and he would probably end up losing his job. Comparing the President to a monkey shot dead? That would be too outrageous, no one would do that.

[vaberella]

4. The intention may not have been there...but it succeeded in doing so.

Secondly, that's the NY Post...they ALWAYs do that. Everyone in NY (or the 5 boroughs and maybe Long Island), who reads "news" papers, know how they roll and this is nothing new or surprising.

[alwysdrunk]

5. But shouldn't the intention be what we care about?

If people misinterpret the cartoon is it really the cartoonists fault? Is it really the paper's fault? I have no love for the NY Post but at least let's try to be fair here.

[Botany]

6. no misinterpretation

it is saying that the ape who was shot dead by the police was the author
of the stimulus package. end of story

[alwysdrunk]

7. And who was the author? Not Obama.

He says over and over "we have 535 members of congress who wrote the bill". He only signed it, he asked for them to write it for him to sign....

[vaberella]

11. Actually he and the media made it a point to sell it as his.

He went as far as to say that he's backing and behind this bill. He went physically on the stump to promote this bill like he would do when he was in the primaries. The bill may have been written by a good amount of other people, he made it his own since he was the final word to pass it.

In the end, through the media and his own push the Bill was his own and identified with him. So when someone looks at the bill and thinks stimulus you think Obama and racist stereotypes of Black people. You can say what you want but there's definitely a different message being shown through the image.

[jberryhill]

12. Not always - remember the "niggardly" incident, or the "black hole"

Brief recaps, if you don't remember... both in the context of local politics somewhere.

1. A public official used the word "niggardly" in its normal context and meaning in the presence of others who were not familiar with it. They believed it to be a racial reference.

2. A public official referred to a department as an accounting "black hole" as a metaphor to the astronomical object. Someone unfamiliar with the term was offended, and believed it to be a racial reference.

In each of those situations, the offense was exacerbated to some extent by the attitude of "What the hell is wrong with you?" as a reaction to the expression of offense.

So, while "niggardly" is a word with a defined meaning, one might take into account that it is a somewhat unusual word, which many of your listeners may not be familiar with.

Hence, intent does matter, but it is also important to think for a moment about how a statement may be perceived, regardless of intent.

It's plausible here that there was no racist intent, but one iota of thought should have led the cartoonist to the conclusion that this might be misunderstood, entirely independent of intent.

And that's called simply being sensitive.

[Faygo Kid]

8. Why the "Beware of Dog" sign? In the middle of a city block? I'll tell you why.

There can be no other conceivable reason for such a misplaced sign.

[jberryhill]

13. Wait a minute, now you are saying the chimp's owner was racist too?

They put a Beware of Dog sign in their yard as a racial reference?

You really believe that?

Because that's the actual picture of the real chimp.

Regardless of whether the cartoon is racist, there was an actual Beware of Dog sign where they shot the actual chimp.

[MadBadger]

9. I dont think that was the intention, but they also knew the way people would take it

And just didnt care.

[lunatica]

10. Oh Please! No one would do that?

Wake up! Look around and you'll get a load of real hate crimes done daily!

[hlthe2b]

14. Ahem... take a gander at some of his other 'work' and tell me that

http://gawker.com/5155855/ten-vile-cartoons-from-sean-delonas

[rvablue]

15. Why are three old white men debating whether something is racist or not...

just goes to show how old and tired and out-of-touch Tweety the Weather Vane is......:boring:

[Honeycombe8]

16. You don't have to be black to discuss racism against blacks. You don't

have to be female to discuss discrimination against women.

Theirs is a valid viewpoint, whatever it is. Of course, it matters MORE what blacks and women think about cartoons like that, aimed against them. But it really is discriminating to totally discount someone's opinion JUST because of the color of his skin.