Cartoonist spokesmodel

I was interviewed for this week’s Redweek, the UNL College of Journalism & Mass Communications’ weekly newspaper, on the Danish cartoon controversy.

I’ve been interviewed for various reasons in the past (see: 1996 Auburn Yearbook Crisis; 2003’s Puppeteer Geek story) and finally – finally – I felt like I was represented accurately! I’ve been on the other side of enough stories that I know how easy it is to present people’s quotes completely as stated in the context they were given, yet people still feel like they were misrepresented, so I am not saying that to put any blame on previous reporters. But either I’m finally getting better at saying what I mean, or Tiffany Lee did a heck of a job (the second is actually more likely, but it might be a mixture of both).

I don’t know if Redweek is posted online anywhere, but it’s actually a really good story about the many angles of the situation. There’s a UNL student who had lived in Iran, a law professor with 1st Amendment expertise, the Christian perspective, and a cartoonist’s perspective.

I was singled out not because I cared to defend the Danish cartoonists (because I don’t), but because I have depicted Jesus in quite a few cartoons over the years.

I did have one quote that I can’t believe I said (I’m not disputing I said it, I just can’t believe my internal censors didn’t stop it) but I don’t think I dishonored the world of professional editorial cartoonists any more than those bland losers do to themselves on a daily basis.

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