Hands Off SpongeBob!(Reuters more accurate than the NYTIMES)

Toonzone via Instapundit. ^ | 01/21/05 | Maxie Zeus

[Pikamax]

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First they came for the Teletubbies and I did nothing, because I hate mewling horribles who live in Orwellian romper rooms. But then they came for SpongeBob SquarePants. Now it's time to march.

That's the reaction a lot of people--not all of them cartoon fans--seem to have had when The New York Times on Thursday reported that James Dobson had criticized Nickelodeon's cheerful yellow sponge for appearing in a video promoting tolerance. The problem, apparently, is that the kind of tolerance being promoted would extend to (among others) people who are gay.

People who read the Times account weren't very happy with Dobson. Over dinner, for instance, my sister laid it on the table with the off-hand remark, "I see that now they're attacking SpongeBob for being gay." "They" are not one of her favorite groups. Nor one of mine.

At Toon Zone, we haven't followed this story with focused interest. But I have watched, with a mounting dread, as each piece of the current controversy started to fall into place. Last November we reported on the video now being criticized.

We reported, too, when the attacks started earlier this month.

And on Thursday we duly carried a summary and link to the Times article (registration required; here is a hassle-free copy).

So I'm not exactly surprised to see this break out into the wider world. While posting the earlier articles I could be heard silently muttering to myself: "3… 2… 1… Make controversy go now!" Complaints that cartoons are corrupting our kids are about as bewhiskered as the Bugs Bunny in a dress gag. This kind of hysteria makes me very tired, both because it's very silly and also very old.

At the same time, let's remember that it's The New York Times we're dealing with. These days it helps to have an advanced degree in Kremlinology while perusing their articles.

Look at the Times opening grafs:

On the heels of electoral victories to bar same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: SpongeBob SquarePants.

"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, asked the guests Tuesday night at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies to celebrate the election results.

In many circles, SpongeBob needs no introduction. He is popular among children and grownups as well who watch him cavorting under the sea on the Nickelodeon cartoon program that bears his name. In addition, he has become a camp figure among adult gay men, perhaps because he holds hands with his animated sidekick Patrick.

Now, Dobson said, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside other children's television characters such as Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others.

Compare it with this summary from Reuters:

Christian Conservative groups have issued a gay alert warning over a children's video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon favorites.

The wacky square yellow SpongeBob is one of the stars of a music video due to be sent to 61,000 U.S. schools in March. The makers -- the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation -- say the video is designed to encourage tolerance and diversity.

But at least two Christian activist groups say the innocent cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.

Notice the difference?

The Times: Several conservative Christian groups are criticizing SpongeBob SquarePants for appearing in a video that they claim promotes homosexuality. (Those are the words of our reporter Ace the Bathound.)

Reuters: Christian groups are criticizing a video that exploits cartoon characters to advance a pro-gay agenda.

As Reuters describes it, Christian groups are attacking a video; the various cartoon characters and entertainers who appear in it are being criticized indirectly (if at all) for lending themselves to an agenda that these critics deplore. As the Times describes it, though, these groups are specifically attacking SpongeBob. And by sticking in an early and gratuitous reference to SpongeBob's popularity with gay men (a point utterly irrelevant to a story about the video), the Times creates the impression that Dobson is attacking SpongeBob for being a gay icon. No wonder a casual reader comes away with the impression that Dobson is attacking SpongeBob for being gay.

In fact, if you read the Times article carefully you'll see that it adds nothing to the story carried by WorldNetDaily two weeks ago, except for some innuendo about a popular cartoon character. (Reuters' more pellucid summary makes clear that the story hasn't advanced in the last two weeks.) Of course, I don't know for sure: maybe Dobson went off on an anti-gay tirade in which he mocked SpongeBob for his cheerfulness, his tendency to skip and sing, and his fondness for holding hands with his best friend Patrick. But if so, why is the only Dobson quote in the Times the colorless "Does anybody here know SpongeBob?"

I'm not interested in the "gay" angle to SpongeBob, and as an editor and reporter on this site I have no interest in gay marriage, gay rights or any of the other social controversies that so exercise Dobson. I think Dobson and his allies are very foolish to treat what sounds like a bland grammar-school video as a threat to American values; I think it is execrable that he should try piggybacking his social agenda onto innocent cartoon characters and their innocent creators.

But the Times, intentionally or not, appears to be guilty of the same thing. Deliberately or not, it appears to have twisted Dobson's position and imputed to him (without evidence) an argument he does not seem to have made. And in making SpongeBob sound like a martyr, it appears to be trying to piggyback a rival agenda onto his very thin shoulders: Save SpongeBob from the bluenoses!

Cartoons don't deserve this. SpongeBob doesn't deserve this. And SpongeBob's creator, Stephen Hillenburg, certainly doesn't deserve to have his creation kidnapped and turned into a giant puppet in some freak protest parade, no matter what its cause.

To Dobson and the Times I've a simple message: Get your hands out of SpongeBob's square pants.

Update: Dobson's organization has released a statement on the controversy.

[EdReform]

Well said!

[Thumper1960]

Has it occurred to you that the only folks who type such words are folks like you and the left?

Nope.

Can't say that it has.

[nicmarlo]

ty, EdReform.

[scripter]

That's quite a jump. Because I don't want my children brainwashed, behind my back, into believing that it's normal and natural to be a homosexual, that means I want people murdered?

Indeed. I'm never sure if some folks are just unaware of what's really happening or if they're part of the homosexual agenda manipulation game. Some of what we're seeing on this thread fits the manipulation games found in the link in post 132:

Propaganda relies more upon emotional manipulation that upon logic, since its goal is to bring about public change (page 162);

Heterosexuals are like Aryans and people who are against homosexual behavior are "Nazis" and "Clansman".

Employ images that desensitize, jam, and/or convert on an emotional level (page 173);

... and more.

[jwalsh07]

Cognitive dissonance abounds, don't feel lonely.

[Thumper1960]

Does that mean I'm in good company with you?

[k2blader]

I am waiting for the first person on this board to finally say what's probably deep within their hearts: Execute the homosexual.

You just did.

Get help.

[jwalsh07]

No, it means you're a judgemental son of a gun judging others to be too judgemental. It's pretty amusing actually.

[Thumper1960]

You really do need to work on that comprehension skill.

[Thumper1960]

That you actually constructed that sentence, and presented it as coherent, is the true amusement.

[scripter]

Something we keep seeing are famous dead folks listed as homosexual (i.e. President Lincoln and others). And when Kirk and Madsen wrote: After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 1990s, they said to use this very tactic:

Infer and speculate that famous historical figures were gay for two reasons: first, they are dead as a door nail, hence in no position to deny the truth and sue for libel; (page 188)

We continue to see their agenda unfold before our eyes. And yet some folks try to play it off as if there's no such thing as a homosexual agenda... even in this video... They really need to open their eyes and see what's going on...

[k2blader]

No. Why would you think such an evil thing anyway?

[jwalsh07]

LOL. I'm obviously in the presence of brilliance and tolerance gone wild. What can one do in the face of such intellect and compassion?

[nicmarlo]

I understand your post wasn't directed to me, personally. However, as your post was directed to all of those who are against homosexuality, or those with the agenda of pro-homosexuality, it was, generally.

Christ taught to love the sinner, not the sin. I don't have to accept their sin to love them. Nor will I allow them to mold my child into accept their sin as acceptable, either.

I know most every parent who has discussed these kinds of issues express the same sentiments. I have never heard that they hate homosexuals. I have heard people say they hate them for what they are doing to our society and our children: forcing us to accept what they do as normal and/or acceptable. Their lifestyle is UNACCEPTABLE.

Just as I find promiscuity unacceptable, murder unacceptable, the KKK unacceptable, terrorism unacceptable, and abortion unacceptable.

It does not follow, however, that because I am opposed to immoral behavior being taught as acceptable that I would encourage my children or others to behave immorally (bigotry, rascism, killing) toward others.

[Thumper1960]

Why would I think there are folks who'd prefer to see homosexuals at room temperature?

Hmmmm.....let me think about that.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but.....isn't it sanctioned by some religions? Haven't some secular nations executed homosexuals? Aren't there folks in this country who so hate the homosexual that they'd murder one if they could?

I work with a fellow who, if he had the slightest provocation to do so, would. Doesn't that sort of thing scare you?

If it doesn't, you are the one who needs help.

[EdReform]

Indeed.

See also: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1326199/posts?page=87#87

[Zechariah11]

True-blue, dyed in the wool, the Word is inviolable types have said that society should follow Biblical precepts....and in essence, deal with homosexuals in a Biblical way.....I'm sure you can guess how that would happen, eh?

That lame statement has as much credibility as one that says secularists, such as yourself, feel "Christers" should be dealt with in the same way as the secularists in China handle them. Eh????

[nicmarlo]

I hadn't read about that before, scripter. That's pathetic.

[Long Cut]

"When I read and heard that gay males LOVE Sponge Bob that was enough for us to make Sponge Bob off limits..."

I just HAD to ping the HTT list for this one. Please, wake me up from this nightmare of nonsense!!! We kicked this about on the Kid Rock threads and others for a while, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that some people still do not "get it", and are encouraged in their delusions by such hucksters and conmen as Dobson and Wildmon.

Politics is the art of the possible. It is NOT a means to solve every slight or offense taken by every individual. POSSIBLE it is in the next four years to enact certain crucial points of the Right agenda...tort reform, tax reform, and Social Security reform. Furthermore, the possibility of confirming nwew justices to help in the slow healing of almost 50 years of Leftist rot exists. All these things, and maybe a few more, rest squarely within the POSSIBLE. However, if one or more is soundly defeated, they will not be again raised for a generation.

These "crusades" against such nonsensical things as Spongebob Squarepants, Kid Roc at the Inaugural, "indecency" on TV and in radio, inevitably brand the Right as unthinking buffoons, and render its message about serious economic and legal issues moot and "guilty by association". They make people question our sanity.

The President hasd an ambitious, to say the least, agenda for his final term, including all of the above items PLUS, of course, winning the Terror War. He will need the support and effort of ALL the Right ere it is finished. He has already laid out his agenda; it does not include such foolishness as Dobson and Wildmon would drag to it and affix to it with barbed staples. Such distractions over ridiculous things like cartoon characters do far more harm than good, and play directly to our opponents' best arguments against us.

Oh, and spare me the testimonials to Dobson and Wildmon's efforts on behalf of "families". One of the biggest problems families face today is paying the bills and avoiding the need to have both parents work. Part of this worry is because of taxes and Social Security concerns. If these preachers wanted to truly do something, they'd take all of that dough they currently bring in and assist in the lobbying of Congress and the people for such changes. As well, they'd take on the Bar Association over tort reform. That they continue to waste time and money chasing after cartoon characters is all the evidence I need to call them, as I do, conmen and hucksters. Serious people do not do such things; they do not willingly invite ridicule...unless the profit motive were present.

Forgive the rant. But recently, I have become quite frustrated with thiose who continue to take their eyes off the targets and chase rabbits (or sponges) to no possible benefit or result. There is probably ZERO chance that any "boycott" of Spongebob will have any effect whatsoever on th evideo people. It is a waste of time and prestige, much as was the reaction (wholly manyfactured) to the Kid Rock situation. Distractions and sideshows, bread and circuses, deflecting needed energy from far more serious and lasting matters.

I also have come to the end of my patience with so-called "conservatives" who imitate perfectly the ever-offended Left in spouting and sputtering over ANYTHING that concievably twists their tails. Not every issue is Earth-shattering; not EVERY little word or phrase is part of a "conspiracy". However, thoase who believe that it IS are certainly quite popular...with the media. I'm sure they like to speak with people like that becaus ethey are a GOOD and POSITIVE representation of the Right. Yeah, sure...

The Left is nearing total destruction in America, and more's the joy; it had no right to even be here in its present form in the first place (and would not have been, save for the efforts of communist-inspired and paid operatives in the '60s and '50s). One of the things that killed it was its inability to avoid wandering off into the hinterlands with such issues like gun control, the "peace" movement, and radical environmentalism. Special interst groups within it dragged it to those tar pits, whence the American people at large simply would not follow.

The Right could easily find itself struggling in those same tar pits next to its old enemies if we continue to be dragged there by those with no perspective, seriousness, or reason. This nonsense (the Spongebob stuff) is exactly that kind of thing.

[Thumper1960]

I applaud you.

The proper course to take is to abhor the sin and love the sinner. It is the way I was taught and the way I've taught.

Sadly, there are those who would rather crush the vessel instead of replacing the wine.