Texas newspaper revels in ‘racist’ Trayvon Martin cartoon
TRAYVON Martin: The cartoon in The Daily Texan student newspaper has the white woman telling her white son:
“And then the big bad white man killed the handsome sweet innocent colored boy”
The woman is book with the title “Treyvon (sic) Martin and the case of yellow journalism”.
The Daily Texan has reacted to its own cartoon:
Stephanie Eisner, political cartoonist for The Texan and the author of the cartoon, said she drew the cartoon in an attempt to criticize the media’s portrayal of the issue. She said some of the media seems to be sensationalizing the facts and making race the more prominent aspect of the case.
Go on:
“I feel the news should be unbiased. And in the retelling of this particular event, I felt that that was not the case. My story compared this situation to yellow journalism in the past, where aspects of news stories were blown out of proportion with the intention of selling papers and enticing emotions.”
The problem with the cartoon is that it’s not very good at being a cartoon. But it is good at creating a polemic and getting the paper noticed. As the paper’s editor says:
Editor’s note: This comic was temporarily taken down at 2:20 p.m. to alleviate web traffic and prevent the web site from crashing. It was republished at 4:50 p.m.
A teenage boy is killed, allegedly, in cold blood. He’s black. The “white hispanic” killer Robert Zimmerman says he acted in self defence. A huge media feeding frenzy erupts. The story takes on a life of its own with the media debating media portrayals of the story’s two characters. Meanwhile, a man has lost his life and another man is living in hiding. Only they know the truth of what occurred.
The media should stick to the facts and investigate. Using Trayvon Martin’s death to grandstand your anti-racist credentials smacks of vanity and self-importance. Racism is rife. Why try to seek it out in a grain of dust, in this instance a badl executed cartoon or some fool’s tweet?
Having been told her work is racist, Stephanie Eisner replies to her accusers at Gawker:
“I apologize for what was in hindsight an ambiguous cartoon related to the Trayvon Martin shooting. I intended to contribute thoughtful commentary on the media coverage of the incident, however this goal fell flat. I would like to make it explicitly clear that I am not a racist, and that I am personally appalled by the killing of Trayvon Martin. I regret any pain the wording or message of my cartoon may have caused.”
Oh, please. It really wasn’t that important until an illiberal media used it to show off their own righteousness…
Posted: 28th, March 2012 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
