OPINION
12
Misguided Cartoonist Has 'Right to Fail': Parker
Image was easily misread, but it's just a cartoon
By Matt Cantor
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Posted Feb 25, 09 9:18 AM CST
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(Newser)
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The New York Post cartoon that has Al Sharpton up in arms was poorly thought out, to be sure, writes Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post. It "was offensive for reasons unrelated to race," she argues, but it’s important to remember that “outrage is out of proportion to the offense, and demands for retributive justice are more dangerous than a lousy cartoon.”
“Cops-kill-chimp/stimulus-bill-bad is not the stuff of revelation,” Parker notes. "It is literal, blunt, and unclever." Even so, cartoonist Sean Delonas had a “right to fail and to offend others in pursuit of an ideal,” she writes, and she channels the late Doug Marlette to remind "all those upset by this cartoon that the freedom to offend is the very same freedom that allows them to protest when their feelings are hurt."