Cartoonist Draws Attention (Ramirez explains cartoon with gun being pointed at Bush)

WNYC ^ | July 25, 2003 | Gladstone & Ramirez interview

[FairOpinion]

"MICHAEL RAMIREZ: Well the cartoon was a rehash of a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo from 1968 showing the South Vietnamese Police Chief executing a VC spy, and I thought it was appropriate because I was drawing a parallel between the politization of the Vietnam War and the current politization that's surrounding the Iraq war related to the Niger uranium story."

I didn't know about the Vietnam photo and I guess neither did a lot of other people.

I think Ramirez should have stopped and thought about it, then he probably would have realized that while the message of the cartoon is right, but the actual cartoon was inappropriate.

Ramirez is very pro-Bush.

[RaceBannon]

It is more than a photo, it is also film, live

It was not a spy, but a commie that had just killed a family and was caught during TET

The film was shown unedited on TV back then, I saw it as a child, and while he may be saying this is a political asassination cartoon, it is in really poor taste, and makes it look like the opposite of what he says it means.

It looks like a threat, not a statement.

[Cold Heat]

Clearly they used bad judgment in this circumstance. In fact it makes me wonder about the intelligence in our intelligence services.

No they didn't! That was just a warning Michael.

[gcruse]

I didn't know about the Vietnam photo and I guess neither did a lot of other people.

Anyone of age during the Vietnam war should have recognized that.  
The rest of you get a bye. :)

[Dat]

What is it with you third party types and homo-erotic imagery? You guys must hang around interesting people, to say the least.

[Moonmad27]

When I heard that Michael Ramirez - of all people - was in the middle of this uproar, my first thought was "he's the only sane (non-rabid-liberal) person in the LA Times!!!!" His cartoons, as you say, have been on GWB's side, often to the point where I can't believe the Times prints them, and for him to get in trouble was ironic indeed. I can see why he did, on the face of it. Ramirez probably should have picked a different visual metaphor to make the point that GWB's enemies will stop at nothing, but he wouldn't have gotten nationwide coverage if he had drawn it differently.

[Oschisms]

If the gun was labeled "Politics" and the shooter was labeled "Democrats," the cartoon would have been so much clearer.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The editors would not have allowed that!

Some of us understood the cartoon fairly quickly!

[Almondjoy]

Your opinion.. realize that and move on.

[exit82]

I want ot know how the Secret Service was turned away from the object of their intent. Like ordinary citizens can tell the Secret Service to get lost.

They should have put yellow tape around the building until they got their face to face.

Ramirez should have had more sense than to publish this cartoon. My first thought was that the Secret Service better get to the bottom of this. People on this forum have gotten visits from them for much less.

[L.N. Smithee]

For the life of me, I don't understand why the routine caricatures of Bush have that exaggerated dipping lip.

[Happy2BMe]

"If the gun was labeled "Politics" and the shooter was labeled "Democrats," the cartoon would have been so much clearer."

Precisely!

As it appears in it's current form, the cartoon draws the immediate shagrin and delight of all Democrats (and Islamic terrorists).

[Happy2BMe]

"For the life of me, I don't understand why the routine caricatures of Bush have that exaggerated dipping lip."

If Ramirez is pro-Bush, you certainly wouldn't prove it by this cartoon - nor his caricature of Dubya.

The "dipping lip" personna magnifies the "too conservative and too much of a prick" image the Dems love to project (and have other believe) about President Bush.

Thank you for pointing that out!

[Lee'sGhost]

"The film was shown unedited on TV back then. . ."

Actually, it was edited. It was very subtle, but if you recall, the only sound on the film was that of the pistol being fired. They edited out all other sounds for, I think they said later, "dramatic effect." It was sort of like the news magazine that darkened OJ's beard on their cover shot. More lib press manipulation.

[RaceBannon]

sometimes you sound like a nut...

[RaceBannon]

I never heard any sound that I remember, not back then or in the replays in video I see of it now.