The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC)
info.detnews.com/aaec/story/details.cfm?id=425
February 26, 2005
The controversy over a "raw and unpleasant" editorial cartoon by Gary Markstein and printed in the Record & Landmark spilled over into the Iredell (N.C.) County Commissioners meeting room in December.
Commissioner Steve Johnson introduced a resolution denouncing the paper for running a cartoon that he says was derogatory to the soldiers fighting in Iraq and their families.
The cartoon depicted flag-draped coffins, with the caption, "I’ll be home for Christmas."
The resolution passed unanimously.
Johnson said he decided to introduce the resolution after receiving numerous phone calls complaining about the cartoon.
"I am not altogether pleased with the way our soldiers and their families were treated in this cartoon," he said.
Although Commissioner Godfrey Williams had not seen the cartoon, he said he voted for the resolution because of the need to support the families of soldiers serving overseas.
"We need to do anything we can to make life easier for the families of the soldiers," he said. "I also understand that the editor offered an apology. I think it was just a bad judgement."
R&L publisher Tim Dearman suggested there are much more important issues in the county that need addressing.
"Now that commissioners have resolved the easy issues that require no money, no courage and no thought, I hope they will begin doing the job they were elected to do, including getting our children out of classroom trailers," he said.
Ted Arrington, head of the political science department at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, said he understands why the commission responded with such a resolution, although he said the decision probably wasn’t wise.
"My motto is never pick a fight with the person who buys ink by the barrel," he said. "With that said, I think the commission was pandering to its constituency."
The cartoon, Arrington said, gives a powerful message but it could also be interpreted as an anti-war statement.
"They are responding in terms of how they think they constituents feel," he said. "Newspapers are privately owned and they have their opinions and will do what they want. But that resolution was not a wise decision.
"Besides, the resolution means absolutely nothing. It has no impact," he said.
Since the cartoon’s publication on Dec. 1, the R&L has received more than 100 phone calls and emails. It published an editorial the following Sunday apologizing for any pain caused to service personnel’s families.
Contacted Wednesday, cartoonist Gary Markstein defended his work, saying that while he supports the troops, the cartoon makes a valid commentary.
"The cartoon is recognizing the fact that while many of us are singing carols, there will be some families that will not be so joyful," he said. "This is a terrible and heart-wrenching fact of this and all wars. Sure, the cartoon was raw and unpleasant. But so is the environment our brave troops are in."
Markstein’s cartoons are distributed by the syndication company Copley News Service.
"For every complaint we have gotten about this cartoon, we have gotten a lot more compliments about how sensitive it is," Glenda Winders, editorial director at Copley News Service, said. "I guess it’s all in one’s point of view."
Winders said the company does not censor its cartoonists because doing so would infringe of their freedom of speech. Only once has the news service pulled a cartoon from publication, Winders said. It depicted O.J. Simpson holding a knife in the place of a Heisman trophy. Since the cartoon was drawn just days after Nicole Brown Simpson’s murder, the company felt it would convict Simpson in the press before he had been tried.
"We feel it is their first amendment right to express their point of view," she said. "It is amazing that in this country, one of our best systems is freedom of speech, and people want to stifle that."
A few weeks later, a military family is asked the Tacoma News Tribune to apologize for the same cartoon.
The newspaper serves primarily Pierce County, which is home to Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base.
"My first reaction was I started crying and just got really mad," said Cathy Painter, mother of a son who has just wrapped up a year-long tour of duty in Iraq.
"That could be my reality this Christmas and I don’t need them reminding me of that," she said.
Painter’s son, Army specialist and medic Brian Nation was also seeing red. He’s about to be deployed again to Iraq. Both mother and son felt it was insensitive of the paper to run the cartoon in an area full of military families.
"I know people that have lost their lives over there and I thought it was very distasteful," Nation said. "The editor should write an apology letter not only to people over there, but also to people back here who have lost loved ones in the war in Iraq."
At the News Tribune, the editor of the editorial page, Dave Seago, said the drawing was placed in the paper’s weekly round-up of cartoons from across the country because Markstein made an important point.
"When I first saw it I said: ‘Wow, that’s powerful,’" he said. "Most of America is going about its business shopping and preparing for Christmas as always, while we have men fighting and dying overseas."
At the newspaper’s offices, managers admitted they received several complaints by phone and e-mail but expected some backlash.
"It certainly wasn’t our intent nor the cartoonist’s intent to be disrespectful as well," Seago said. But he said he would probably run the cartoon again.
Painter and Nation said they won’t buy another News Tribune unless the paper issues an apology.
"We all know that’s a reality of war – yes, it’s an ugly reminder – but we don’t need that thrown in our faces," Painter said.
–Sources: Record and Landmark, michaelmoore.com
(cartoon published around the beginning of 12/2004.
similar articles also published at wcnc.com/news/local/stories/121004ccjrwcnccartoon.2cab2017.html
statesville.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=SRL%2FMGArticle%2FSRL_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779586719&path=!news )