Conservatives Slam Cartoonist on Portrayal of Rice
The Wall Street Journal, following the lead of some other conservative critics, has gone into high dudgeon over an editorial cartoon by Jeff Danziger that shows Condoleezza Rice as Prissy in “Gone With the Wind” — a cartoon that apparently, no one ever ran.
The cartoon was drawn after the New York Times received considerable attention for an Oct. 3 piece noting that administration officials claimed in 2002 that the United States had ”irrefutable evidence” of thousands of tubes made of high-strength aluminum “that the Bush administration said were destined for clandestine Iraqi uranium centrifuges.” Yet “almost a year before, Ms. Rice’s staff had been told that the government’s foremost nuclear experts seriously doubted that the tubes were for nuclear weapons.”
Danziger’s cartoon, called, “Condoleezza Rice in the role of a lifetime,” shows a barefoot national security adviser in a chair nursing an aluminum tube with a human face, saying, “I knows all about aluminum tubes. Correction. I don’t know nuthin’ about aluminum tubes.”
“For liberals, Condi Rice’s real crime is bucking Democratic orthodoxy and working for a conservative president,” charged the Wall Street Journal Friday.
“This makes her fair game for race-based attacks even when the issue at hand has absolutely nothing to do with race. She is a black woman who, in Mr. Danziger’s view, has wandered off the liberal plantation. And this is his way of putting Ms. Rice and other black conservatives in their place.”
“There is a sickness in this country, ladies and gentlemen. And it doesn’t blow from the Right,” Jay Nordlinger, managing editor of the National Review, said on Oct. 12.
Michelle Malkin, the Filipino-American who has written a book that defends the Japanese internment, fanned the flames on her blog as well, as did other conservatives.
Danziger pulled the cartoon from his Web site and at first attempted to defend it, e-mailing correspondents that he was responding to “the standard lies told by a political operative, out of her depth, who happens to be African-American.
“Whenever this administration is in trouble they send out Condi Rice because the press, which is mostly white and male, gives her a far easier treatment than they would a white male. Meanwhile, our troops are dying and being grievously wounded in a war that could have been avoided, or at least unsought. Ms. Rice’s (and other’s) statements about the aluminum tubes are the same kind of lie as the Gulf of Tonkin lie from Lyndon Johnson‘s people. 55,000 GI’s died for that lie.”
Danziger, 60, is a veteran political cartoonist who used to draw for the Christian Science Monitor and now freelances for the Cartoonists and Writers Syndicate, which in turn distributes his cartoons via the New York Times Syndicate.
But for all the huffing and puffing, Danziger and Michael Oricchio, managing editor of the Times syndicate, separately told Journal-isms, in response to questions, that they knew of no paper that had run the cartoon, nor any that had complained about it. Oricchio said Danziger’s cartoons are sent to “less than 50 papers.”
The New York-based cartoonist said that he got the idea for the sketch after being with some actors and cartoonists, some of them African American, who “were doing schtick from ‘Gone With the Wind,’ with Rice as Prissy. That character, played in the film by Butterfly McQueen, had declared that “I’se knows all ’bout birthin’ babies” when the white Melanie character was confronted with a difficult pregnancy.
“When finally found by a panic-stricken Scarlett and told to take over,” as Donald Bogle describes the scene in his classic “Toms, Coons, Mammies, Mulattoes and Bucks,” “the girl stares into Scarlett’s eyes, first in astonishment, then in absolute fright. ‘Lordy, Miss Scarlett,’ she cries in her high, tense, fluttery voice, ‘I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies!'”
“I thought it was funny and didn’t think deeply about it. It was stupid on my part, because the movie itself is a racist stereotype,” Danziger told Journal-isms. In fact, he added, “the movie is not just racist against African Americans, but is also anti-Irish,” given its portrayal of Irish-American drinking.
“I do 300 cartoons a year,” he said, and such lapses are bound to occur.
A former intelligence officer who in 1991 wrote a half-serious, half-humorous book about the war, “Rising Like the Tucson,” Danziger said he sees “very strong parallels to what happened in Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which President Lyndon B. Johnson used to justify the escalation of that war, “was based on lies.” But with the Rice cartoon, he said, race had superseded the point he was trying to make about the administration.
“If you looked at the body of Jeff’s work, he’s not somebody who uses race-baiting to make a point,” said Oricchio.
Danziger said none of those who criticized the cartoon had called to ask him about it.
Election-Year Influentials: “All White, All Male”
“Who dominated this year’s campaign coverage?” asks the headline on a piece today by television writer Ed Bark in the Dallas Morning News.
“Now it’s time to name names, but first with a few caveats.
“You’ll notice that this top 10 list of TV’s election-year influentials is all white, all male. That’s because times haven’t changed much when it comes to giving women and minorities some showcase seats at the table.
“PBS’ Tavis Smiley, CNN’s Judy Woodruff and PBS’ Gwen Ifill all have their own public affairs shows. Still, they simply don’t generate enough buzz to make a major impact. It might have made a difference if Ms. Woodruff’s daily Inside Politics program were in or near prime time instead of hidden in the mid-afternoon.”
Bush Appears on Univision, Telemundo
President Bush, saying the United States should find a more humane way to treat immigrants, told the Univision television network Thursday that he supports offering temporary cards to immigrants who want jobs that go unfilled by U.S. citizens, the Associated Press reports.
“In a separate interview Thursday with Telemundo, Bush said he deserves the support of Hispanics in the Nov. 2 election because of his plans for security, education, and health care.
“Bush spoke in English and his answers were translated into Spanish in the broadcasts.”
Meanwhile, Democrat John Kerry was to have appeared yesterday on the syndicated America’s Black Forum, interviewed by Juan Williams. “Sen. Kerry talks personally and candidly about what he must do to win the presidential election on November 2, 2004,” says a Web-site promo. “Sen. Kerry says, ‘Presidential victory may hinge on high African American voter turnout.'”
As reported last week, Bush has turned down an offer to be interviewed on the more widely viewed Black Entertainment Television, and BET founder Robert L. Johnson, who extended the invitation, took the rebuff personally, asking top-ranking black Republicans to intervene and make his case.
CNN’s Carlos Watson Gets New Talk Show
Carlos Watson, a political analyst on CNN who joined the network only last December, was just about the only person of color participating in the instant television commentary after the presidential debates.
Now, as Sara James reported Friday in Women’s Wear Daily, “Producers at CNN have studied the media landscape and determined that what the viewing public needs is . . . another talk show. This weekend, the network will unveil ‘Off Topic With Carlos Watson ‘ a one-hour show which political analyst Watson describes as a hybrid of a Barbara Walters? special and ‘Charlie Rose.’
“‘He talks to a wide range of people. She got up close and personal,’ explained Watson. ‘This will be younger, hipper and fun.’ For the first episode, which premieres Sunday at 10 p.m., Watson went off-topic with basketball star Shaquille O?Neal, model Heidi Klum and Illinois senate candidate Barack Obama. . . . A follow-up episode of ‘Off Topic’ will air on Dec. 12, and producers hope to take the program weekly next year.”
NAJA President Lewerenz Heading West for AP
“Dan Lewerenz, correspondent for The Associated Press in State College, Pa., has been promoted to correspondent in Cheyenne, responsible for the AP’s news and photo report in Wyoming,” the AP reports.
Lewerenz, 31, is president of the Native American Journalists Association.
“There was mutual interest,” he told Journal-isms. “As a Kansas boy, I was interested in moving closer to home, and in moving out west where I might cover Indian Country. And I have worked before with Montana bureau chief John Kuglin (he was my COB [chief of bureau] when I worked in Helena) and with West regional news director David Wilkison (he was the assistant bureau chief who hired me in Pennsylvania). Both have followed my AP career, so they were happy to hear that I had an interest in the job.”
Ivory, Ihne Pick Up McGruder Diversity Awards
Bennie Ivory, executive editor of the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., and Susan Ihne, executive editor of the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota, officially received the Robert G. McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership, sponsored by the Freedom Forum, Associated Press Managing Editors and the American Society of Newspaper Editors at the APME convention in Louisville, Ky., last week.
“As someone who grew up in the Deep South and spent most of my career there, (diversity) comes to me naturally. For me, it has always been about opportunity. . . . providing opportunities to others,” Ivory said, according to Ann Clark, Gannett News executive.
Ihne said: “My staff speaks 10 languages . . . more than 43 are spoken in the schools. Our challenge is connecting with various parts of our community. . . . My staff loves teaching their craft. We love to give young people a running start in their careers,” Clark reported.
Ihne wrote last month a piece for the Freedom Forum called “Leading by example.”
“Here are a few of the things we’ve done to connect,” she wrote.
“Hire a diverse staff, train them and help them achieve their goals: Five of our 40 staffers are minorities. They come to St. Cloud because it’s a great place to learn and practice journalism. The newsroom is inclusive and welcoming. We recruit from across the country and, in three cases, around the world. We follow potential job candidates through school and first jobs. We work with the Freedom Forum’s Chips Quinn Scholars Program for interns. We’re willing to work with immigrants on work visas and green cards. We meet with all of our staffers annually to discuss one-year and five-year goals. We help place them with other newspapers when they’re ready.
“Give staffers opportunities to take on challenges: One of our minority reporters is going to Afghanistan for three weeks to report on troops from our area. We worked with the Freedom Forum’s Diversity Institute to turn a lawyer into a journalist who enterprises area cities coverage with flair and precision. Our minority assistant news editor is in charge of the local stylebook. A minority copy editor spent his morning as a reporter covering the Bush visit, then came in during the evening to do his pages.
“Map of the world: We’ve had a map of the world with numbers plotted on countries to show from where our almost 1,000 international students are and from where pockets of recent immigrants have come. It hangs in our conference room where we meet to make news decisions for 1A and the nation/world page. We try to make our international news personally relevant to our diverse population and their new friends in St. Cloud. . . .”
National Readership Study of Black Papers Planned
“Ethnic Print Media Group, the ad sales division of ethnic community newspaper publisher Gemstone Communications, Monday said it has begun implementing a national readership study of African American community papers,” reports Media Post.
“Results, which will be published in the spring of 2005, will be based on interviews with more than 13,000 African Americans, including their readership patterns and consumer spending. EPMG said it also is conducting an independent audit of 90 top African American newspapers in 65 markets. EPMG previously announced it is funding a nationwide audit of its top 75 Hispanic community newspapers.”
Latino Says Immigration Not Biggest Challenge
“The word ‘Hispanic’ has become synonymous with ‘undocumented’ or ‘illegal’ immigration because of the way the word is used by the media and how some advocates market their help of the Hispanic community,” contributing columnist Abdon Ibarra wrote Sunday in Kentucky’s Lexington Herald-Leader.
“It is the media’s responsibility to accurately portray the diversity of all communities and to realize that illegal immigration status is not the greatest challenge facing 85 percent of the Hispanic community in the United States,” wrote Ibarra, described as a consultant on Latino issues and the former immigrant services coordinator for Fayette County.
“Advocates must realize that they have a public-relations function. It is important that their zealousness does not perpetuate the arguably racist premise that all Hispanics are undocumented.
“‘Juntos pero no revueltos’ is a Mexican adage that means: ‘Together, but not in a lump.'”
Only So Much Crusading in a Minute-30
“People said, ‘Oh, you want to be the next Connie Chung,'” said Nancy Loo, Emmy-award winning journalist, writes Helena Oh in the Daily Northwestern at Northwestern University. “But I didn’t want people to think I was some token Asian.”
“Loo spoke to about 120 students at Fisk Hall Thursday night after starting her day at 2:15 a.m. to anchor the Fox Chicago morning news. Loo, a mother of two, normally goes to bed at 7 p.m., but her fatigue went unnoticed as she described journalism as a ‘money-making business’ and how she ended up in it.
“‘Coming out of (the University of Oregon’s journalism school), I was very idealistic,’ Loo said. ‘I thought journalism was a social cause, but there’s only so much I can do and tell in a minute-and-a-half story in a newscast.’
“Loo discussed her coverage of the plight of Chinese refugees while anchoring in Hong Kong after college. She also wrote about student demonstrations in South Korea and was one of the first journalists to be allowed into the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
“The Chinese Student Association sponsored the event to provide a role model for journalism students as well as Asian American students, said Clara Tse, the event’s co-organizer.”
Series on Mumia Abu-Jamal Online
A 16-article series on Mumia Abu-Jamal, the onetime head of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists who became a cause celebre after his conviction for killing a police officer, has been posted on the Web sites of the Independent Media Center of Philadelphia and of Prof. Kim Pearson of the College of New Jersey.
The series is authored by both Todd Steven Burroughs and the death-row inmate, “right in time for the Party’s 38th anniversary this October,” says Burroughs, in a reference to the Black Panther Party. The series covers Abu-Jamal’s time in the party.