Reader slams Benson
And rightfully so, in my humble opinion. The Powerline guys were made aware of this cartoon when it was published and rightfully slammed him for it.
Duke in Avondale writes the Republic:
If you are going to continue to print Benson cartoons that are flat-out lies and distortions about Guantanamo Bay guards "desecrating" the Quran, then you must also publish the U.S. Army's guide to handling the Quran at Guantanamo Bay.
Next Thursday, print the guide side by side with Benson's cartoon and let your readers decide about Benson's honesty (maybe he's just flat-out ignorant) with this issue.
Steve Benson isn't ignorant, he is willfully biased. He has yet to produce a cartoon in the 3 1/2 years I've lived here that is anything but critical of the Bush Administration. It is obvious to anyone who sees his work on even a semi-regular basis that he is a critic of the Right and uses what platform he has to share that opinion.
On a side note, he's not much of a nice guy either. In December of last year I traded email with Mr. Benson regarding a cartoon he'd done about Bush's cabinet. His response was (what else?) a smushing together of talking points, all vague and general; but best of all it was snide and rather impolite:
Sure, they're yes men--and Bush controls his cabinet like he did his carefully-orchestrated campaign pep rallies. Admission by permission only.
He is insulated, isolated--and great cartoon material.
If only there wasn't a constitutional prohibition on consecutive presidential terms. He's a god-send for cartoonists.
As far as killing you, well, that is your problem, not mine.
Steve Benson is a talented cartoonist. Too bad he's a jerk to readers.
2 comments:
Shocking cartoon. Hadn't seen it, but it's simply disgusting. Even if Benson's POV on Gitmo is dead-on accurate, it's not troops that are the baddies. It would be policymakers. And you know where I stand on all of this stuff, so it's not like I'm making excuses.
But demonizing American soldiers on Gitmo seems to me so far off-base that it's laughable. This cartoon might end up being one re-published in history textbooks 20 yrs from now....
It seems pretty clear that Duke is a biased Bush partisan--to use his words, willfully and unignorantly so.
Duke's problem appears to be an intolerance of political opinions which disagree with his own.
In his ideal version of the planet, perhaps he would like to see his views represented in the drawings of people he disagrees with.
Huh?
Someone once said that people want their news fair, balanced--and from their point of view.
Sounds like they had Duke in mind.
C'mon, Duke dude, chill out.
You can't make cartoonists in your own image--unless, I guess, you make the cartoons yourself.
Go the art school and learn to color the world through your personal ideological glasses.
In the meantime, let others do the same.
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