Tampabay.com
FEBRUARY 20, 2009

NY Post cartoon controversy, part 2: What to say about Ted Rall?

I don't often agree with conservative analyst and sometimes source Tim Graham of Newsbusters.org. But he's raised an interesting question at the National Review Online about cartoonist Ted Rall in light of the controversy over an insulting cartoon in the New York Post.

He notes that Rall, who serves as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, has published some in-your-face cartoons himself, including one calling NFL-star-turned fallen soldier Pat Tillman an idiot and another depicting former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling herself a "house nigga" for President Bush.

Have to say, I agree that the Rice cartoon crossed a line I wasn't comfortable with. And I wish I had known of these cartoons when I participated in an online chat sponsored by the Poynter Institute on the New York Post's cartoon, because I would have asked about them.

Seems to me, there was a way to make Rall's points without using the n-word. And we who participated in the chat should have asked him some tough questions about why he felt the need to put that world in his illustration.

On my part, I have to say, lesson learned.

Here are the two controversial Rall cartoons under discussion:

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Tedrallrice_3   

Ralltillman

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