OntheWilderSide

KW: During the Bush administration, many of my peace friends and colleagues seemed to be hounded and harassed by the Secret Service if anyone got too close or made any odd allusions to President Bush. It seems insane that someone (even a cartoonist) portrayed a symbolic shooting of the President, in an image that hundreds of thousands of  people see, and the Secret Service would not look into it. Someone should investigate the patterns and protocols of why and when the Secret Service does or doesn’t act on potential threats to certain presidents.

Also, somewhat related: Several times, when Long Island peace groups held demonstrations, there would be someone filming who appeared as a journalist, with an expensive camera, with no markings on it. When confronted, they would almost always say they were from “FOX News”, but no one ever saw the footage. One time –during the Bush administration– when that happened, the activists were taped, the footage never appeared anywhere, but a demonstrator was called into the Secret Service for an “interview.” Scenarios like this should be investigated. Is there a link between “FOX News” and parts of the government? Or, is the government going around taping us, and just throwing out false information about who they are?

Rupert Murdoch owns FOX News and the NY Post. Perhaps connections that could cause the government to overlook Murdoch’s transgressions should be investigated.

The NAACP seems to be addressing lower on the feeding chain. The NAACP is calling for the removal of the Editor-In-Chief of the NY Post and for the removal of the editorial cartoonist, Sean Delonas.  Delonas has a history of angry and weird cartoons which attack diversity – such as against gay people and transgendered people.

A philosophical question that came to my mind about this is: If a political cartoon was published that promoted racial hatred, who would it be more important to remove, the owner of the paper, the editor-in-chief, or the cartoonist? I think a case could be made for each. The owner and editor-in-chief have a lot of ongoing power vetting the viewpoint and articles/cartoons that will constantly flow and be published at a media outlet. Though, the cartoonist can create such subtle messages with art, he could become an undercover supporter and trainer on the subject of hate and discrimination. Which office has the most power to do harm?

(excerpt from) Newsday.com
NAACP wants NY Post editor and cartoonist fired
February 21, 2009

The head of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization on Saturday urged readers to boycott the New York Post, calling a cartoon the tabloid published an invitation to assassinate the president.

Earlier this week, the newspaper apologized to anyone who might have been offended by the image, which some say likens President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police in Connecticut.

But the apology wasn’t good enough for the NAACP, and President Benjamin Todd Jealous said the cartoon printed Wednesday was “an invitation to assassination.”

He said the tabloid should remove editor-in-chief Col Allan, as well as longtime cartoonist Sean Delonas…

Filed under: activism, Barack Obama, media, News, Political Websites, president, progressive politics, US Politics Tagged: | cartoon, Col Allan, editorial cartoon, media, NAACP, political cartoon, Post, Rupert Murdoch, Sean Delonas, Secret Service