We realize some people may be upset about the Beetle Bailey waterboarding cartoon that ran Friday.
One letter we received calls for an apology for running the cartoon. However, we will not retract the cartoon nor will we apologize for it simply because it is “offensive” to some.
This page is open to all viewpoints, and that includes the cartoon that runs in the box below.
As such, the individual columns, letters and cartoons that run in this paper are simply that, the viewpoints of individual cartoonists. The messages do not reflect the views of the O’Collegian staff or the university.
As far as content goes, we celebrate this page and the newspaper as a unique venue for free speech — a marketplace of ideas. The marketplace of ideas is the idea that the free exchange of ideas allows for truth to emerge; that open dialogue is central to the functioning of a free society.
To diminish this dialogue, to chill this right of free speech would diminish the function of seeking truth in our society.
Censorship is not the answer. Just because a cartoon portrays soldiers in a negative light doesn’t mean we should censor it.
Dissent isn’t un-American. Soldiers are fighting and dying to protect such rights and to bring this and other rights guaranteed by our Constitution to other parts of the globe.
If you oppose what someone says, the answer isn’t to force them to stop. In the spirit of the marketplace of ideas, the answer is more speech, not censorship.
To quote Voltaire, a French philosopher whose writings were influential in the founding of this country, “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”
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I think apologizing for a bad cartoon would be slightly different than being censored. Perhaps you are making too much of a fuss? It’s easier to resort to high rhetoric in defense of free speech than it is to apologize for a bad cartoon. Also, it goes without saying, the title of this editorial is simply false: the opinion page is not open to ALL viewpoints. Would you allow a KKK member or neo-Nazi to write a racist, hate-mongering column for your opinion page? No, of course not, you would use editorial discretion and prevent such views from being aired, rightly. Likewise, you could have used some kind of editorial discretion to prevent such a cartoon from being published. Or find a new cartoonist. Or only run a cartoon when you have a decent cartoon to run. And so on.
As for the cartoon itself, it was more ignorant than it was offensive. Waterboarding was used in a limited number of cases by the CIA, not by soldiers. So, the cartoon seems to be suggesting a couple of falsehoods. One, it suggests that American soldiers are dumb, by comparing them to Beetle Bailey. Two, it suggests that American soldiers use waterboarding, which is false– waterboarding was a CIA interrogation method, used on high-level suspects by intelligence officers, not by American soldiers.
If anything then, you should apologize for the fact that the cartoon was inaccurate. The only person who was truly offended by the cartoon was the cartoonist himself–he offended himself (and perhaps the opinion page as well) by displaying his own ignorance.
Also, it might be worth mentioning: “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it” was a phrase written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her 1906 book “The Friends of Voltaire”. The quote is widely misattributed to Voltaire.
I’m quite honored to be called ignorant by Justin Akers, the esteemed former O’Collegian columnist who provided Western Civilization and the journalism world with such nuggets of wisdom like encouraging one party rule in the United States. Or the multiple times you claim Global Warming is a hoax. Or when you ignorantly clump all Muslims together as “Islamic Fascists”(a term which by itself carries multiple layers of ignorance). Or that time you defended Imperialism as not being “all bad” and congratulated America on being an empire.
Perhaps if you weren’t so busy trolling this site, you’d see that all week I drew parodies of syndicate comic strips. Monday was Charlie Brown, Wednesday was Garfield, and Friday was Beetle Bailey. Perhaps it is Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey, you should be accusing of “falsehoods”, since he is the person that portrays American soldiers as “dumb”.
Your statement about which arm of the government uses waterboarding contains numerous falsehoods. For example, you use the past tense in describing the CIA’s usage of waterboarding. The CIA hasn’t stopped waterboarding.
The US Army does in fact waterboard. The Washington Post, in 1968, published a photo of an army soldier waterboarding a Vietnamese POW near Da Nang. Not even you could rule out the use of waterboarding at military brigs, Guantanamo Bay, or Abu Ghraib.
And I appreciate the subtle comparison of me to a KKK member or a neo-Nazi. Very, very classy.
I didn’t compare you to neo-Nazis or KKK members: I said the opinion page is not open to ALL viewpoints, and brought up neo-Nazis and KKK members to illustrate that point, which is a separate issue: your cartoons are much more harmless than the KKK, or neo-Nazism.
Thank you for your familiarity with my columns. Although, for a cartoonist, you seem to be somewhat unfamiliar with the concept of sarcasm–for example, since many of my relatives, and most of my friends, are registered Democrats, I don’t think they should actually be banned, or jailed. That was what’s called a joke (granted, maybe not a funny one, but that’s another story).
I never clumped all Muslims together as Islamic fascists. This is merely a lie on your part, or more ignorance. In fact, I repeatedly stressed the importance of bringing democracy and freedom to the Muslim world in my column, and once wrote how proud I was every time I walked past the Islamic Society on my way to class. I have no problem with Muslims, and never wrote an unkind word about Muslims, or lumped them all together. I reserved the unkind words for Islamic fascists, radicals, extremists, terorists, whatever you want to call them.
As for 1968 and Da Nang: this photo hardly supports your contention that “the army does in fact waterboard.” Isolated incidents of soldier misconduct happen in every war. If I’m not mistaken, that Washington Post picture sparked an investigation by the military. The US Army Field manual prohibits waterboarding. And the recent controversy surrounding past use of waterboarding by the CIA was not evidence of current use of waterboarding by soldiers in the US military.
You claim the CIA hasn’t stopped waterboarding. How on earth would you know? The director of the CIA has claimed in congressional testimony that it was used by the CIA in the past on three high-level terrorists, and it was done at the time because it was believed another attack on the US was imminent. It hasn’t been used since. Was he lying under oath?
And as far as Mort Walker and Beetle Bailey is concerned–the Beetle Bailey cartoon isn’t offensive as long as it does not portray US soldiers as torturing morons. It’s one thing to portray a bunch of boot camp grunts as harmless dumbies, it’s quite another thing to portray them as actively engaging in an illegal act against what is apparently a prisoner in a war zone.
What exactly was the point of your “parody”? Can you please defend it, explain it? Do you believe soldiers are dumb? Do you believe they are torturers?
You say I am busy trolling this site, and therefore perhaps I was not privy to the fact that you are doing “parodies” this week. If I am a troll because I read the O’Colly and see your cartoon and comment on them, then what does that make your daily readers? Trolls? And why, if I am so busy trolling, would I not have seen your other parodies?
Again, what is the point of the Beetle Bailey parody? What does it mean? You tell me. Perhaps I am just an ignorant troll, but I’d really like to know what the cartoon was trying to say.
Thanks again for your familiarity with my columns, I appreciate you “trolling” them.
I think the point about trolling is that you come here to either make people feel bad and/or make yourself feel better. Or at least that is the way it seems to most people.
I think in your entire stay as an O’Colly online reader you have said one positive thing and even then you complimented the column on not being as horrible as all the rest.
I don’t want to be hasty (that’s probably a lie), but it really does seem like you are here to avenge the mistreatment you suffered at the hands of former O’Colly staff.
You have made some pretty spot-on criticisms of the O’Colly, but it is hard to take you seriously when you just-as-often berate people for the slightest of grievances.
As for the comic strip, why does it matter if water boarding is an official technique of Army interrogators? If soldiers are (or have been) using water boarding, illegally or otherwise, the cartoon works. I seriously doubt that Beetle Baily is up-to-date on the acceptable interrogation techniques of the U.S. Army.
I would like to point out that his trolling is a fishing term, he means that you just scan the site for hours on end, whether or not you do I have no idea. Secondly I remember the O’colly firing a writer because he got too many complaints about his writing. In my opinion he was one of the best writers on their staff, he had a great sense of humor and a view point that I could actually agree on. So the opinion page being open to everyone is a complete fallacy. Its like Fox news being fair and balanced or Cuba a democracy.
Kurt, I’m not out to avenge anything, and I don’t think I was mistreated by the O’Colly staff. I read the O’Colly because I enjoy reading it, and I criticize it because I’m critical. When I wrote for the O’Colly, the vast majority of responses to my column were negative, it comes with the territory. In regard to your statement:
“As for the comic strip, why does it matter if water boarding is an official technique of Army interrogators? If soldiers are (or have been) using water boarding, illegally or otherwise, the cartoon works. I seriously doubt that Beetle Baily is up-to-date on the acceptable interrogation techniques of the U.S. Army”
Soldiers have not been using waterboarding, that is my point, and I believe it is a crucial point. The cartoon doesn’t “work” because it mistakenly implies that American soldiers waterboard prisoners, which is not true. It does in fact make a huge difference that 1)wateboarding is prohibited by the US Army, and 2)waterboarding, as far the evidence suggests, has been used in a very small number of cases (3) by CIA officers on high-level terrorist suspects, not by American soldiers.
I’m not going to even bother mentioning how offensive the cartoon is to Americans in the armed-services–I’ll leave that to the service members themselves, such as the one from today’s letter to the editor. I am merely pointing out the fact that the cartoon is inaccurate, and doesn’t work on its own terms. The cartoonist has the freedom to try to offend American soldiers all he wants, but he should at least get the basic facts straight before he does so.
First, I do not want to imply that you are here to be a jerk. It just seems like that sometimes. I do not know you.
Second, I can concede to you that it is offensive, but that does not mean it shouldn’t be published. You offended plenty of people with your columns. In fact, that is what made them good.
However, you original argument was that the problem with the cartoon was its ignorance, not its offensiveness.
Jeff clearly demonstrated that the comic was not created out of ignorance when he provided an example of U.S. soldiers using water boarding. Again, it shouldn’t matter what the official policy of the Army is because, as stated earlier, Beetle Bailey is probably not concerned with the legal means of interrogation. Maybe his cartoon is an indictment of individual soldier misconduct rather than an indictment of the entire Army, as you have suggested.
I did not offend people, purposely, with inaccuracy in my column. If I did, then I am ashamed. But I don’t believe I did.
If anyone, in the military, or in the civilian population, breaks the law and tortures, rapes, or murders, then they will, or hopefully will be, prosecuted, to the full extent of military or civilian law.
Much like any large population (millions), armed-service-members commit illegal acts–that does not justify portraying them in a cartoon as criminal, ejaculating, urinating torturers.
To imply that any large segment of the US population, whether they be military, or civilian, or anyone, is engaged in torturing helpless prisoners, is offensive.
Waterboarding is against US military law. Unless you know otherwise, and can document it, American soldiers do not waterboard. To imply otherwise is false, and offensive, and offensive. And should be APOLOGIZED for.
Give it up, Justin. You’re just bitter that you’re no longer on staff. The OSU and Stillwater communities are thrilled to be rid of your ignorance. Just slink off into obscurity and keep your ignorant opinions to yourself.
Good God man, I don’t want to be on the staff! I’ve graduated! And they hardly ever paid me! And they were stocked full of feminists. I’m like 5000 miles away from the staff, and Lord knows I don’t harbor any secret desire to hang out with them in the newsroom until the wee hours. I’d rather be where I am, in Europe, watchin 80s action films into the wee hours of the morning, drinking Polish beer.
I’m the only person who is consistently, regularly, personally attacked on this website, it’s amazing and bizarre.
Nice to know that “J” speaks for the “OSU and Stillwater community” though–that’s rich. The community spokesperson who can’t use his name, brilliant.
Justin I want you to know that I miss your articles. You are the reason that I began really reading the paper. I found them insightful and enjoyable, not everyone hated your writing. Do not listen to people who are not brave enough to give their first name.
Thanks Alex.