Cartoonist Michael Leunig found himself in a tight spot when his best anti-Semitic cartoon was selected for the Iranian ‘payback’ free speech cartoon competition. At stake in the inter-continental cartoon slag-off contest were gold coins, supplied by a lovely Iranian philanthropist.
Leunig’s cartoon was entered by a lovely Australian larrikin – Richard Cooke. It was another case of one of the Chaser crew making trouble (yet again).
Leunig complains that it’s unfair he will get picked on just because his cartoon was picked for the finalists by the Mad Mullahs. Now, should we go easy on Leunig because of his misfortune? There is no doubt that the cartoon was attractive to them because they though it had been submitted by a high profile Author
However, there is no getting away from the fact that it was the creation of a high profile Author. And there is no getting away from the fact that it was a highly dubious cartoon.
This kind of puts the anti-Iraq thing in perspective, doesn’t it. Who’s thinking ‘cookie-cut-left-wing, pro-Arab, anti-Semitic, Fairfax reading, tosser’?
Your bed Michael, you can lay in it. Perhaps the philanthropist might send you a few virgins for your show of solidarity – even if the blow up was accidental.
3 comments:
It's amazing that something, such as this cartoon, that is critical of the State of Israel must be considered anti-Semetic. I acknowledge wrong on both sides of the Israel-Palestine divide, but I frequently view the state of Israel as an oppressor of the Palestinians, who retaliate with inexcusable suicide bombings.
This cartoon however displays very neatly the highlights the oppressed becoming the oppressor in the space of a few decades. To highlight this does not make the individual or the cartoon anti-Semetic. To do so is oversimplification.
Gerard, I don't what other conclusion you can draw. The cartoon presents an equivalence between the premeditated murdering of 6 million Jews and the building of a wall to keep suicide bombers from blowing up innocent civilians. If that's not anti-semitism, well what is?
Matt - you have missed the point by averting your eyes to the right.
Do you support freedom of speech at all?
Post a Comment