Debates Over Cartoon Consequences Continue To Rage

One of the more interesting developments of the last ten years is how cartoons feed into the commercial cycle of political outrage. This was of course an element of the Danish Cartoons Controversy, and part of what has been deeply astonishing about that event and its long hangover was seeing what in some ways seemed like a typical puppet show of political stances become a very real set of economic boycotts, jailed journalists and people dying in riots without moving away from its cartoon roots and solely into the underlying issue itself.

Two stories that bubbled up on the wires today mirror the construction of those initial arguments. They probably lack the unique set of social circumstances that might drive the whole thing into a bigger story involving the cartoon themselves and some dire real-world consequence. Still, they're worth noting for their criticism of the cartoonist's role in enabling real-word events, dragging into a discussion of the issues how those issues are presented and by whom. An editorial writer at the English-language Turkish news portal suggests here that a lazy, ill-considered element of hate speech that's been bubbling up in European cartoons for quite some time gave solace to the views of mass-murderer Anders Breivik. A second is how angrily conservative-minded folks seem to react to the cartoons from Arizona Daily Star cartoonist Daniel Fitzsimmons regarding the Tea Party movement, suggesting the obvious savage contempt that Fitzsimmons displays on a routine basis crosses a line to normalize certain stereotypes and to even recommend violence as a solution for problems they present.
 
posted 5:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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