Romenesko reports on a radical-versus-radical squabble over a cartoon image of Obama. Leftist cartoonist Ted Rall was lectured by a Daily Kos administrator that “your depiction of Barack Obama as ape-like is intolerable” and insisted “blacks have been subject to racist depictions of themselves as monkeys and apes. No excuse is acceptable for replicating that history, no matter what your intent."' The cartoon was censored.
The caricature doesn't really look like Obama, certainly not the ape-like nose. Rall, who hasn’t been paid for his Daily Kos submissions, was furious at being accused of a racist cartoon:
“Anyone familiar with me and my work knows I’m not racist,” he complained. “My criticisms of the president are unrelated to his race, and to say otherwise in the absence of evidence is disgusting.”
He added: “It should be noted that my editors at a variety of American newspapers, magazines and websites, almost all of whom are left of center politically, some of whom are black and many of whom voted for Obama, have never expressed the slightest concern about the way I draw the president.”
After a few weeks of posting his cartoons, this incident “marks the end of my experiment posting to Daily Kos. I might consider altering the way I draw a political figure for a paying client. A very high-paying client. Someone who employed me full-time. I’m sure not going to alter my drawing style for $0.00 money.”
It’s pretty funny when the Daily Kos is accused of being too cozy and centrist with the DNC establishment: “Obviously, this is no biggie. Nothing gained, nothing lost. Given the reflexive pro-Obama/pro-DNC politics of the blog and its owner, it was probably inevitable that they’d do this. It was crafty of them to choose the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to ban me. Fewer people will be around to notice or care.”
