Wednesday, October 01, 2014

HAHAHAHAHA watermelon!

How does Gategate look in the cold light of day there, Boston Herald?

And what's the latest on the apologia front?

Boston Herald cartoonist Jerry Holbert took to the airwaves this morning to apologize for a political cartoon that set off a social media firestorm after appearing on the paper's editorial page.

“I want to apologize to anyone I offended who was hurt by the cartoon,” Holbert said this morning on Boston Herald Radio. “It was certainly, absolutely, not my intention.”

... Holbert claimed he came up with the idea to use watermelon flavor after finding “kids Colgate watermelon flavor” toothpaste in his bathroom at home.


“I was completely naive or innocent to any racial connotations,” Holbert said. “I wasn’t thinking along those lines at all.”


Got it. I mean, it's not like the Kenyan's brushing his teeth with a chicken bone or anything.

Although the cartoon appeared as he drew it in the Herald, Holbert said he was “confused” when he received a call from his national syndicate last night asking that he change the flavor to “raspberry.”

When asked if he thinks he should have called the Herald after that discussion, Holbert admitted he “should have done that.”


... The Herald has also issued an apology for the cartoon, saying "As Jerry Holbert discussed on Boston Herald Radio this morning, his cartoon satirizing the U.S. Secret Service breach at the White House has offended some people and to them we apologize.  His choice of imagery was absolutely not meant to be hurtful. We stand by Jerry, who is a veteran cartoonist with the utmost integrity."


You can, at this point, probably write most of the comments section yourself: Jesse! Al! Holder's the REAL racist! PC is destroying the country! It's all about race when someone dares to criticize The One, isn't it?


To which the sensible response is: No. It isn't, and it never has been. But the ones about watermelon? They're about race. And if a veteran cartoonist doesn't get that, it's reasonable to ask whether he's paying enough attention to the visual communication environment.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Marilyn J. Tarnowski said...

This is one of those apologies that is not: "I want to apologize to anyone I offended who was hurt by the cartoon..."

-I want to apologize: Why not, "I apologize ..."
-to anyone I offended: Why not, "to everyone..."
-who was hurt: Why not "who saw ..."
-the cartoon: Why not "my stupid commentary ..."

9:05 PM, October 02, 2014  

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