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| Fifth Column | |
| Ted Rall: "New York Times Caves to Republican Pressure, Cancels Ted Rall’s Cartoons" | |
| 2004-03-05 | |
Nurse Ratched! Ted’s decompensating again!
I don’t, but go on . . . you may have noticed a hole on the comics page where my work used to appear. It seems that, under the dismally lame cover of "moving in a different direction," the actual reason was probably something like "Sheesh! this guy’s a moonbat, and his drawings suck!" my cartoons were the only feature out of 10 (all supplied by Universal Press Syndicate) that the Times saw fit to drop. My trouble with the Times website dates back to the "terror widows" controversy. That cartoon, Ted’s finest example of "dismally lame" which appeared in March 2002, became the target of a coordinated email attack by right-wing "warbloggers." These pro-Bush bloggers, ". . . who bombard me with cosmic rays from their black helicopters as part of a secret plot to steal Afghanistan’s oil from Halliburton and . . ." coasting on a wave of post-9/11 patriotism, sent out emails to their followers (helpful souls forwarded some to me) asking each other to deluge the Times and other papers with complaints that purported to come from their readers. "How dare they use the first amendment like that!" The Times, under the mistaken belief that hundreds of their readers had complained about the cartoon, Query: if you run a newspaper, and you get hundreds of e-mails from your readers complaining about something in the newspaper, would you be mistaken to conclude that "hundreds of . . . readers had complained?" dropped that particular piece. Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that the cartoon viciously insulted people who had lost family members on 9/11--quite a few of whom live in New York and subscribe to the Times. The fact of the matter is that what the Times has done here to me--and to you--represents a "I am an artist! I am entitled to have my work published by a large corporation without regard to its good taste or artistic quality!" They’ve sent the message that political pressure works. It’s one thing for an editor to decide that a cartoon no longer works for editorial reasons, or that it’s not as good as it used to be. . . . or was never any good in the first place. It’s quite another to cancel it simply because you’re tired of being deluged with hate mail. . . . unless Ted Rall sends the hate mail. Then, you have to do what he says ’cause Ted is always right. Dealing with feedback is an editor’s job. ". . . but he’s not allowed to respond to it if it interferes with my If you agree that the Times’ stifling of a On the other hand, if you think the Times did the right thing for once in its wretched existence, please tell them. Rall helpfully collects the e-mail addresses for you. | |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #20 Sweet. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-3-5 9:37:36 PM |
| #19 Hehe, those crazy folks can be entertaining at times to read. It looks like some believe this to be some kind of conspiracy that could eventually lead to the shut down of their web-site. |
| Posted by: Lil Dhimmi 2004-3-5 6:09:59 PM |
| #18 And the crazy folks at the Democratic Underground are really pissed! |
| Posted by: Oki 2004-3-5 5:45:08 PM |
| #17 Hint taken. Link is on the right, under resources. But Cox and Forkum is cutting back... |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-3-5 4:44:54 PM |
| #16 Naw, the NYT needs a good liberal replacement. M4D can you draw good? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-5 4:29:00 PM |
| #15 Don't worry, Ted. There's always the Boston Globe, and they don't care if you suck or nothing. You can tell if you read their columnists. Why don't you send them a resume? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-3-5 4:04:36 PM |
| #14 FYI, in my congratulatory letter to the addresses provided by Rall, I plugged Day by Day and Cox&Forkum: "Here are some political cartoonists with actual talent: Chris Muir: http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/ Cox and Forkum: http://www.coxandforkum.com/" (hint hint) |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H 2004-3-5 12:40:43 PM |
| #13 Can't blame it on Ashkkroft now that he's in the hospital, eh, Ted? |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-3-5 12:28:03 PM |
| #12 Hey Ted! look here! Can you see it? Look closer! Closer! Can you see it now? You cant can you? Well I'll tell you what it is then shall I? Its the worlds first sub atomic seized violin, and its playing a requiem Ted, just for you. |
| Posted by: Evert Visser 2004-3-5 12:12:00 PM |
| #11 Ever notice how the left always interprets the idea of the market making decisions of value as "censorship"? |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2004-3-5 11:05:51 AM |
| #10 This is almost as funny as when Aaron McGruder went on BET and hinted that he might be killed becuase he dared to criticize the administration. Get over yourself, you hack! |
| Posted by: BH 2004-3-5 11:03:24 AM |
| #9 I've ignored him all this time and thought I would check out some of his cartoons in honor of his firing. My reaction when reading the very first entry was "Whoa, this guy IS a prick". Well done NYT. Why did it take so long? |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-3-5 9:36:41 AM |
| #8 lol! Funny stuff from all of you. Mike, Dar, et al...keyboard alerts are necessary for this kind of stuff. |
| Posted by: B 2004-3-5 9:24:45 AM |
| #7 Ted, would you like some cheese to go with your whine? |
| Posted by: DK 2004-3-5 9:17:17 AM |
| #6 Good. I found his "toons" distasteful, crude and degrading to the 9/11 survivors. Oblivion next. No wait there is always the Dimmy left who will suck up this garbage. |
| Posted by: dataman1 2004-3-5 8:46:08 AM |
| #5 Nice Fisking, Mike. Very entertaining. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-3-5 8:45:25 AM |
| #4 If I were running the Times, the third thing I'd do (after firing Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman) would be to drop Doonesbury for day by day and Mallard Fillmore . . . but that's another debate for another day. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-3-5 8:25:29 AM |
| #3 Would anyone be surprised to discover that all of Ted Rall's failures in life have been the result of a vast conspiracy to stifle his artistic voice? More than likely the Times is still carrying Doonsberry and other liberal cartoons that suck every bit as bad as what Ted was churning out. The difference being that Trudeau has a group of dedicated readers. I think Ted should abide by the Ellen Dejeneress rule - be as liberal as you want just don't suck. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-3-5 8:04:43 AM |
| #2 Ya know, the best part about this is that other, notoriously un-funny funnies like "Mary Worth" and "Rex Morgan, MD" will continue to run while Rall sucks rocks and mumbles to himself incoherently while adjusting his Reynolds Wrap headgear. Speaking of those strips, I should start cutting them out daily now to post in my co-worker's cubicle alongside his Dilbert and "Calvin and Hobbes" strips for April Fool's... |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-3-5 7:56:11 AM |
| #1 Wah, f'ing wah! Apparently ego and talent are inversely proportional. |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-3-5 7:16:03 AM |