Univ. of Florida student paper apologizes for Haiti cartoon
In an apologetic opinion piece Sunday, the student-run Independent Florida Alligator in Gainesville states:
Before we talk about anything else in this editorial, we would like to say one thing: We still have a lot to figure out.
After all, we are students.
The issue: Texting donations to Haiti. The cartoon — which apparently ran last Thursday — shows a couple texting their donation while having sex. It’s a little too not safe for work to embed (Heh!) here, but check it out here — if you’re not using company bandwidth.
The editorial says:
When deciding to run that cartoon, we in no way wanted to make light of the situation that happened in Haiti.
…We were simply trying to show how people have come together to help the Haitians in their time of need, as we do when we publish stories about the relief efforts of students — only with the cartoon, we were giving it a humorous spin. We understand that Haitians are dealing with a horrible tragedy, and we would never want to treat the situation insensitively. But despite the heartbreak, we see beauty in the way the world is coming together to help Haitians. Our cartoon was simply an acknowledgment of the fact that people are joining together to get behind a cause.
In addition, the paper ran another cartoon Sunday to help underscore how unintentional this error had been:
Heh. Not bad.
This cartoon, too, also ran Thursday and also dealt with Haiti donations. The subject: Pop musician Lady GaGa:
Find the Sunday editorial here.
Normally, the Independent Florida Alligator posts its editorial cartoons here. This one, however, is posted with sex-oriented columns and cartoons in the paper’s features section.
We found this today via Jim Romenesko’s blog.
January 25th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Their sex cartoon seems a bit contrived if nothing else. Seems like a poor way to illustrate people joining together for a cause. Political cartoons generally reveal something that people do but with a twist. It would make more sense if there were some outbreak of people texting during sex and the cartoon was saying you could be texting Haiti instead.
January 26th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Gotta love the Alligator. I worked there in college. They are never hurting for controversy. (Remember the Kanye cartoon? http://www.afro-netizen.com/2005/10/kanyecondi_cart.html)
I guess I don’t see the point of that cartoon. I don’t find it all that offensive. But it doesn’t seem like it has a point to make - which kind of goes against the point of editorial cartoons. And I agree that it seems contrived.
I do think the apology cartoon is funny.