Cartoonist gets death threats

No, I’m not talking about the crazed Somali extremist who tried to kill Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard last week in retaliation for that old Mohammed cartoon with the turban-bomb (tur-bomb?). That was last week’s news, and I slept blissfully through it. I’m talking about USian cartoonist Mark Fiore, who had the audacity to put up this little vid awhile ago:

Three… two… one…

OUTRAGE!

Right-wingnuts went apeshit-bananas, and Fiore reports that the death threats continue to roll in apace:

The death threats keep coming this fine morning. I guess the Tea Party crew is determined to have “death panels” one way or another. “Learn to Speak Tea Bag” ran on my usual client sites, including NPR, which really set off the guys over here, here (note Condi giving child flowers down by “donate” button), here, here and here. Before you could say, “due to a pre-existing condition, your health coverage has been denied,” there was a full-fledged viral campaign by right-wing media outlets and blogs to jump, scream and shout about this animation. Which, to me, is just great! I say that not because I get some thrill out of receiving emails that are in all capital letters or have more exclamation points than letters in the alphabet, I say that because one of the most important functions of a political cartoon, or political animation, is to foster a discussion. With thousands of comments posted, loads of emails and tweets, discussion was definitely fostered, and then some. It’s the “then some” that worries me.

Fiore goes on to note the coincidence of being on the receiving end of death threats over a cartoon at the same time as the Danish cartoonist, saying “Muslim extremist, meet tea party extremist”. Great Caesar’s Ghost, it’s the Teabaggin’ Taliban!

Who says irony is dead? It’s just been resting.