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.

[nicmarlo]

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);

This is also pathetic; their tactics disgust me.

[Thumper1960]

Learn?

[The Mayor]

Bump to that

[DaveDCMetro]

Well said. Very well said.

[Thumper1960]

Devining the "secularist"?

LOL

How you could tell that from a post is amazing.

Incorrect, but amazing.

[jwalsh07]

You could have saved yourself a good deal of embarassment by reading the thread prior to posting. You are ignorant of the facts and slandering Dobson but you do have the lefty talking points down pretty well.

Color me amazed at the reactionary "theocons" here at FR.

[nicmarlo]

It is simply the way the Christians are commanded to live, Thumper. To be different would then be buying into the moral relativism that has infected our society. The Standard by which I live does not change, regardless of how "man's" standards are constantly in flux.

[jwalsh07]

LOL, well said? For the umpteenth time, the issue is not cartoon characters, it is sexual politics in grade schools pushed by the producer of the cartoon flick.

And whats more, you've got the brain to understand that yet you persist in supporting the "Its all about Sponge Bob" crap.

[k2blader]

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?

Well, you might want to check with a local mosque in your area.

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

That is scary. Do your posts on this thread have more to do with what you feel about him than any of us on FR?

[k2blader]

Did you even read the article, and Dobson's statement?

[scripter]

It would appear you haven't read the posts in this thread nor the links pointing you to more information.

[Zechariah11]

Reread your post, then. Obviously, you harbor an antipathy toward the Biblically-minded. You smear Christians with an extreme stereotype and then find it odd that someone infers you are a secularist. Try using the preview button if you don't want to give the wrong impression. Eh?

[jwalsh07]

Learn?

How to be a reactionary relativist?

No thanks, I'll just struggle along with my meager public school education devoid of sexual politics and continue to oppose those who insist on making the schoolroom a setting for indoctrination.

And if that shoe fits you, I'll look forward to many more debates here at FR with you.

[DaveDCMetro]

I suppose what irks me are not those such as yourself, who have intelligently dissected the issue and come to a logical conclusion, albeit a conclusion different from my own, but instead, what keeps bringing me back to this thread are the posts from people who seem...I don't know how to describe it...Uneducated, ill-informed, and easily manipulated. Some of the links that are being mass-posted here are just as nutty as the "Kerry won Ohio" stuff that's posted at lefty sites. And I guess I am bothered by the number of conservatives that buy into such things. It reminds me a lot of the way Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton manipulate the reactionary left. And I fear that comparable figures on the right will rise up to take advantage of the fears of the social conservatives in years to come. After all, these gay issues are only going to get hotter in the coming years. Just wait until the people in their 20s now, who basically have no problems with homosexuals, are in their 30s and begin to move in positions of power.

[scripter]

Some of the links that are being mass-posted here are just as nutty as the "Kerry won Ohio" stuff that's posted at lefty sites.

Which links?

[Shortstop7]

SpongeBob is not gay. Patrick Starfish is gay.

lmao

[Thumper1960]

No. My posts reflect a wide array of sources from which I have gathered information.

As for checking a "mosque", I do not believe ther is one close by.

Perhaps, I should check with a priest, minister or rabbi?

[Thumper1960]

Not once have I mentioned, or typed the word "Christian" in these posts. Perhaps, you feel some guilt?

Let's explore this, shall we?

[DaveDCMetro]

Scroll through this thread --- there are tons of them.

[jwalsh07]

If you have a problem with a link then you should as a matter of course logically debunk it. Otherwise, every body simply talks past each other.