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Home > Opinion > Mike Luckovich > Archives > 2006 > February > 15 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USan interview
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
JON FRIEDMAN’S MEDIA WEB Luckovich blasts Danish cartoons Commentary: Plus, Pulitzer winner ponders Cheney
E-mail | Print | | Disable live quotes By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Feb 15, 2006
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Mike Luckovich, the Pulitzer-winning cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, sounded a little sheepish when he talked about the Danish cartoon furor. Luckovich, 46, criticized his brethren for using poor judgment in depicting the Prophet Muhammad. “You have to be responsible,” he noted disapprovingly — “and that’s an odd thing for a cartoonist to be saying. We’re always looking to get under people’s skin.”
The controversy, which sparked deadly rioting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has thrown a light on political cartoons and whether cartoonists occasionally go too far in their attempts to mock public figures. “Sometimes what I say is going to offend people, but I have to be true to myself,” he said. “I consider myself a columnist who uses a humor to make my point.”
Luckovich maintains that the Danish cartoons crossed a line of decency and professionalism. “Their mission was just to tick people off,” he said. “That’s what the editor wanted. I don’t think there was any greater message. You don’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, just to yell ‘fire.’”
Make no mistake, Luckovich is hardly a prude in his approach to satire. He (and such cohorts as the Washington Post’s Tom Toles) continue in the tradition of Herbert Block (“Herblock”), Bill Mauldin, Paul Conrad and Pat Oliphant, to name four iconic provocateurs in the history of newspaper cartoons.
“I’m Catholic, and my kids attend Catholic school,” Luckovich said Sunday on CNN’s excellent “Reliable Sources” program. “I have done numerous cartoons on Catholic scandals, like the pedophilia scandal. But I have never used Jesus Christ to make my point. I feel like there is a line there.” When a cartoon is too pointed, it loses its humorous edge and its effectiveness, Luckovich told me. “You use symbolism and imagery to make a larger point,” he said. “A cartoon has to be hard-hitting to be effective. But sometimes, your imagery can overwhelm the cartoon, if it’s not calibrated correctly.”
Luckovich reserved his sharpest criticism for the Danish editor. “An editor makes the decision on what goes into the paper,” he said. “I don’t hold the cartoonists as responsible as the editor.”
When I asked him Monday to talk about his journalistic philosophy, Luckovich said he relies on a combination of common sense and good taste in recognizing where to draw the line. For instance, Luckovich is no fan of the Bush administration’s policies but he wouldn’t try to embarrass anyone merely to get a cheap laugh.
“I wouldn’t put Bush or Cheney in a sexual position,” he said. “That would be an example of a cartoon with offensive imagery. I would draw (Bill) Clinton with his pants down with heart-shaped underwear. He widened the parameters for cartoonists. But I would never show him in a sexual position. In our culture, we are very — what’s the word…” “Puritanical?” I suggested. “Yes, puritanical,” Luckovich answered.
Luckovich’s luck
It’s 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 13. As usual, Luckovich is happily freaking out. One hour before his deadline arrives, Luckovich is still groping for inspiration. Oh, he knows he’ll be lampooning the surreal case of Vice President Dick Cheney, who accidentally shot a 78-year-old companion on a hunting trip over the weekend, in the next day’s editions. But Luckovich is still fiddling with ideas.
Just as death and taxes are inevitable, it’s close to a sure thing that Luckovich will come up with something topical, tasteful and, most of all, very funny. The Cheney fiasco inspired him, to say the least. “After I heard that Cheney’s friend wasn’t killed, I began jumping up and down,” Luckovich laughed. “For cartoonists, our week is made!”
But it’s not enough for Luckovich to state the obvious. He aims to highlight the inherent irony in a situation and zing someone who acts pompous or self-serious.
“This administration takes itself way too seriously,” Luckovich said. “They can never admit that they made a mistake. There is something very funny about this — especially because Cheney doesn’t have much of a sense of humor. He’s always so grim, so authoritarian. This is a time when you see he is human and, as he would say, he screwed up big-time.” Â
Luckovich drew an image of the Vice President sitting by Harry Whittington’s bed and looking down at his friend. “An apology is in order,” Cheney is saying to the hospitalized man, adding impatiently, “I’M WAITING.”
Giddy
Luckovich has a typical work day, which he doesn’t recommend to a faint-of-heart journalist. “What I’ll try to do is work right up to my 5:30 deadline,” he said. “Then I knock it out as quickly as I can. Out of a panic, I’ll concentrate and come up with something. When I do, I’m almost giddy.”
Like a songwriter who has to invent a coherent set of music and lyrics, Luckovich has a dual challenge of his own. He must create just the right image and caption. “The drawing probably comes first,” he observed. “First, I’ll have an image, then I’ll work on the language.”
Luckovich looks for inspiration from current events and tries to remain topical but not heavy-handed. In one instance, after reading that Clinton and the first president Bush were genuinely good friends, Luckovich drew a cartoon showing the two sitting side by side in a movie theater. Seated a row behind them, one secret service agent mutters to his partner, “I’m beginning to think this friendship’s real,” as the screen points out that the chums are watching “Brokeback Mountain.”
Luckovich doesn’t always have to be humorous to make a large point. “In 2005, my favorite cartoon was when the 2,000th soldier had been killed in Iraq,” he said. “I wrote ‘WHY?’ using the soldiers’ names. When it ran, there was an immense outpouring, both pro and con. That’s what makes America great.”
I asked him to name his favorite cartoon of all time. I could have guessed his response. He shot back: “Today’s cartoon will be my favorite — until tomorrow.”
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Andy
February 15, 2006 03:40 PM | Link to this
Let’s see, we will draw the President of the United States in his underwear because there is no chance that he will saw our heads off. But then we have the “courage” to criticize the editor of a Danish cartoonist whom has enough bravery to tell it like it is concerning the Islamic killers of innocents. This guy’s head must be swimming in hypocrisy.
By Mad As Zell
February 15, 2006 03:49 PM | Link to this
Andy, I agree, the Islamic faith seems to be more enthralled with the “Eye for an eye” (more like suicide bomb for an eye) part of its philosophy more than any other part of the Koran.
By Buy Danish
February 15, 2006 03:51 PM | Link to this
Lucovich: This administration takes itself way too seriously,� Luckovich said. “They can never admit that they made a mistake
AJC website: Cheney admits to shooting friend “I’m the guy who pulled the trigger,” vice president says.
By DavidU
February 15, 2006 03:53 PM | Link to this
Islamic “fundamentalist”….fundamentalist. Not Islamic Faith. Lets not generalize. I hope there’s still a cartoon tonight, this cut and paste of a press clipping is not entertaining.
By nucular
February 15, 2006 03:54 PM | Link to this
Mindless Little ANDY, Baby BUFF: STFU! You waste space w your pathetic regurgitations. Steal a life!!
By Mad As Zell
February 15, 2006 03:56 PM | Link to this
We can pick on Christians all day long like in New York with the Virgin Mary sculpture that’s covered with dung, because they know that Christians won’t put a bounty on their heads and drive a carbomb into their building or home, but strangly these same people are oh-so-silent when it comes to critizing the response from the Muslim world over some cartoons that ran months ago in an almost obscure paper in some European outpost.
By N-GA
February 15, 2006 04:02 PM | Link to this
Nothing that ML said condones the reactions by Muslims to the cartoons. He simply stated a fact. Everyone in the public eye (not just cartoonists) have responsibilities, including the editors who printed the cartoons.
He discussed being Catholic and yet he admitted he has used his forum to lampoon Catholic Priests who are guilty of pedophilia, but he went on to say he never uses Jesus Christ to make a point. Like ML or not, he has some standards.
By Buy Danish
February 15, 2006 04:07 PM | Link to this
N-GA - He stated his OPINION that it was wrong to publish the infamous cartoons. That is not FACT.
By Dusty
February 15, 2006 04:08 PM | Link to this
Would you mind repeating Luckovich’s standards again? Somebody might have missed them.
By RW-(the original)
February 15, 2006 04:12 PM | Link to this
These cartoons?
By Buy Danish
February 15, 2006 04:18 PM | Link to this
RW - Can you explain the first cartoon in the second row to me? I don’t get it - it looks kind of like a bent p*** emerging from an Arab robe, but that can’t be it…
By Andy
February 15, 2006 04:24 PM | Link to this
The level of discourse that oddball gay finch would like to see:
By nucular
Mindless Little ANDY, Baby BUFF: STFU! You waste space w your pathetic regurgitations. Steal a life!!
By RW-(the original)
February 15, 2006 04:28 PM | Link to this
Buy Danish,
I think it’s just the star and crescent in Muslim garb. Why couldn’t they show that one? What gets me is they run the story without showing what they are talking and claim it out of respect.
Your 4:04 on the other thread is perfect. This is truly chilling and it doesn’t have anything to do with respect.
By DavidU
February 15, 2006 04:34 PM | Link to this
Asbestos Bill get blocked
This bill actually looked like it was a reasonable solution to all the lawsuits.
By RW-(the original)
February 15, 2006 04:41 PM | Link to this
DavidU,
From your link it looks like this isn’t really blocked. They had 59 votes to end debate and Inouye was going to be the 60th. Frist changed his vote to no so that he would be able to bring it back up.
(If your link is still here, posts keep coming and going over here. Must be the cartoon intifada.)
By buff
February 15, 2006 04:48 PM | Link to this
Mad
Yeah, and the crucifix in urine was funded by the NEA
By DavidU
February 15, 2006 04:49 PM | Link to this
RW - They would have to re-introduce the bill again, since it did not get past the objection (This bill is done). They have recess (HA HA) next week so the earliest for it to be reintroduced would be in 2 weeks, and by then they may not have the votes when another procedural objection is voted on. They need to figure out a bill to stop the litigation though, and soon.
By MuhammadWho?
February 15, 2006 05:47 PM | Link to this
Mike’s a democratic. So just like his buddies: , Ted “hic” Kennedy, slick willie, mean howard dean, john kerry/edwards, al bore, its ok to be a hypocrite so long as you, punch and blame the USA, instead of looking in the mirror at their own hypocrisy.
By Sam
February 15, 2006 06:40 PM | Link to this
Stupid Cheney. These scum have become so accustomed to lying about everything, its become a habit. Handles a firearm with total irresponsibility, shoots another hero in a field. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men being paid for my taxpayers so they can exercise their personal weaknesses. And this geek insists on covering it up, stonewalling. 4 days later is FORCED to open his twisted lips. Instead of announcing it when it happened & the whole thing would have been long over with. That whole bunch needs to be flushed out of the Dark House. Whatever it takes. Maybe another week or so of “winning” will do it. We can have some Victory Parades and so forth. Freedom. On the march….
By Buy Danish
February 15, 2006 06:47 PM | Link to this
Sam - Like Rumsfeld when the Pentagon was hit, Cheney was actually tending to the wounded and had concerns about his children hearing it on the news before they were contacted. You know, the normal concerns of normal human beings who don’t think about what the press will think before they take action. But of course you wouldn’t understand that would you.
By Brett
February 15, 2006 06:48 PM | Link to this
Hey, all you heroic Christian Chickenhawks, climb out from under your rocks and deal with those demonstrators. And you, little bitty Buffie, sip a glass of urine - it would be a welcome change for you and get you closer to where you wanta “be” in life.
By Midori
February 15, 2006 06:50 PM | Link to this
Ho, Boy.
Enjoyed the interview, Mike.
But not as much as I enjoy your cartoons.
By Andy
February 15, 2006 07:28 PM | Link to this
Would this be the type of discourse that pleases oddball gay finch? Does it pass pinko muster?:
Hey, all you heroic Christian Chickenhawks, climb out from under your rocks and deal with those demonstrators. And you, little bitty Buffie, sip a glass of urine - it would be a welcome change for you and get you closer to where you wanta “be� in life.
By THE POSTMAN
February 15, 2006 07:52 PM | Link to this
Hey Sam: Those deeds after 9/11 were heroic but that still doesn’t make up for the fact that President “Hat Size I.Q.” Bush, VP “Darth Vader” and the Evil Genius Karl Rove stole the 2000 election with the help of the idiot’s brother, Jeb Bush who helped lead the way to victory in Florida with his crooked purging of thousands voters from the rolls. Let’s not also forget the lies about the false connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, the cherrypicking and playing up of the pre-Iraq war intelligence (how ironic, Bush 43 talking about intelligence of any kind) by scaring the nation into rushing into an unnecessary war with false tales of robotic planes and “armed-drones” equipped with “Weapons of Mass of Destruction” that were never found (remember tales of enough Anthrax to kill everybody on earth?).
Should I stop? or should I go on, because there’s plenty more….Nah, just a little bit more….the fearmongering of the 2004 Presidential Election (the gays are to take over and are coming to get us all), the vicious “Swift Boat” attacks on John Kerry, who unlike your close mentally challenged, cocaine-snorting buddy, Dubya, actually fought in Vietnam and wasn’t being given a pass out by his rich daddy to drive his pregnant girlfriends to abortion clincs between lines of coke during “sabbaticals to find himself” during his distinguished service career in the Texas and Alabama National Guard units.
But wait! What about Rumsfeld you ask? Well it seems that the highly competent Secretary Rumsfeld has been busy sending our brave men and women into the teeth of a guerilla war (a war that the administration said might last no more than three weeks) without proper body and vehicle armor. Imagine that, our troops getting body and vehicle armor from our government and not having to buy it themselves in a guerilla war against psychotic suicide bombers.
Let’s not mention our genius of a President not watching television for three days while being where else? On vacation at his Crawford, Texas ranch during the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history instead leaving the castastrophe in the more than able hands of highly-qualified FEMA Director Michael Brown, who before running FEMA had such highly-distinguished accomplishments on his resume such as being fired from his lofty management position at a horse farm. Dubya then commended Mr. Brown on his standout performance with his now-famous comments “Good-job, Brownie”.
Oh and let’s not forget that the director of the White House Communications Staff, Dan Bartlett, had to burn a DVD to show Bush how serious this little weather event called Hurricane Katrina was. You know, the one known as the worst hurricane ever to strike the U.S. and cause the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history that our President Bush wouldn’t take seriously enough to really act on for almost a week while people all along the battered Gulf Coast lived outside waiting for federal help to come?
Yep! That sounds like the stuff that great presidents are made of to me. Neo-conservatives, how about you? Do you all think that Bush is one of the greatest presidents of all time? I specifically want to hear from Bush supporters on this one.
By THE POSTMAN
February 15, 2006 08:00 PM | Link to this
Andy, Buy “Bite Me” Danish, Buff Ryder, Sam, Neo-cons, right-wing cool-aid drinkers….I’m waiting.
By Buy Danish
February 15, 2006 08:05 PM | Link to this
Postman - Uh, what’s your point?
By THE POSTMAN
February 15, 2006 08:26 PM | Link to this
Sorry Sam, I know that you’re NOT of these Neo-Con Demons that’s intent on taking over the country and turning it into a pro-big business, corporate theocracy under the guise of making the country more “Christian”. I’m just agreeing with you that this evil administration of screw-ups has been a sick joke to the country and a nightmare to the well-being of our nation’s future.
Hey Danish, I just want to know where is the Fox News-Hannity-Limbaugh-Rove talking points at to defend this President’s monumental screw-ups? And where are you, Mad As Zell? Why don’t you come to the aid of these neo-Cons and be the personal lap-dog to the right-wing. I’ve read some of your previous posts on here and you look like one of the biggest, if not the biggest backwards-a** bigots on here.
What do you do Zell? Put on your KKK suit and set fire to a cross so you can feel right at home in your element while attacking people who don’t agree with your narrow backwoods (rope and tree branch included) views?
By Andy
February 15, 2006 08:37 PM | Link to this
You don’t seem to be the brightest bulb in the lamp, there is a new cartoon and that makes this a “dead” thread. You’re all by yourself, you and your kook paranoid rant.
Yes, in fact I do think Bush is a great president. I am not a loonie, after all.
By THE POSTMAN
February 15, 2006 08:38 PM | Link to this
Come on, record budget deficits, record trade deficits, record healthcare costs and tens-of-millions uninsured and tens-of-millions more underinsured, record fuel costs, record oil company profits, public attacks on gays, record illegal-immigration, record outsourcing, depressed wages. Aren’t we going to sing the praises of Dubya & Co. and tell everybody how great of a president he has been? Boy it sure is mighty quiet in here, I thought that we would pegging him for the Top-five list about now, you know, up there with Reagan, Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, etc.
By Andy
February 15, 2006 08:40 PM | Link to this
The record mental health care cases…
By THE POSTMAN
February 15, 2006 08:43 PM | Link to this
That’s okay Andy, I’ll be over in the new thread to raise hell soon enough.
By Andy
February 15, 2006 08:43 PM | Link to this
This president has been a boon for the psychiatric industry. I should put some money grubbing capital into Prozac stocks. There’s 3 years left! We could double the kook population. Invest in mental health care!
By Andy
February 15, 2006 08:46 PM | Link to this
What’s a good medication for paranoia? Does Merck make anything? Squib, maybe? How about a good treatment regime for pinkos that have flipped their lids? Blown their liberal gaskets?
By Buy Danish
February 15, 2006 08:47 PM | Link to this
Postman, What do you for relaxation? I suggest you do it.
By THE POSTMAN
February 15, 2006 08:50 PM | Link to this
How can people invest in Mental Health Care? They’ve got the least amount of personal savings since the Great Depression. Paying for health insurance and gas probably made them have to file for bankruptcy.
By THE POSTMAN
February 15, 2006 08:53 PM | Link to this
I can’t tell you what I do for relaxation, well let’s just say that it involves a car, a gun and neo-Cons running for their lives, JUST KIDDING, I watch Fox News Channel for laughs of course.
By Buy Danish
February 15, 2006 09:20 PM | Link to this
Postman, maybe if we didn’t get taxed on our savings we’d actually save something. That’s a libdem thing - we hate taxes on savings and investment. But, its not as dismal as you would like to spin it - many of us have decided just to put a downpayment on a house instead of putting it in a bank account to collect mold.
By Ramble On
February 15, 2006 10:32 PM | Link to this
Hey POSTMAN,
By Ramble On
February 15, 2006 10:37 PM | Link to this
Funny, your party can’t beat someone as “dumb” as George W. Funny, you lost the House and Senate, and you call us dumb. Funny, because, your making this so easy for the GOP of controlling the USA…how soon till you really go “postal”. I’m sure it will be a Republican you steal the gun from to blame.
By The Grinch
February 16, 2006 08:50 AM | Link to this
FUNNY…. *”One of the local television stations in South Louisiana actually aired an interview with a black woman from New Orleans. The interviewer was a woman from a Boston affiliate. She asked the black woman how such total and complete devastation of the churches in the area had affected their lives.
Without hesitation, the woman replied,” I don’t know about all those other people, but we haven’t gone to churches in years. We gets our chicken from Popeye’s”.*
:)
By Andy
February 18, 2006 05:36 PM | Link to this
Access to acute care in the setting of emergency department overcrowding
By Andy
February 18, 2006 05:37 PM | Link to this
When Patients Become Victims The Crime of Government-Run Health Care
By Andy
February 18, 2006 05:37 PM | Link to this
Emergency! A Critical Situation
By Andy
February 18, 2006 05:38 PM | Link to this
Need surgery? Here’s how long you’ll wait
By Andy
February 18, 2006 05:39 PM | Link to this
Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada 12th Edition
By Andy
February 18, 2006 05:40 PM | Link to this
ER delays are common and deadly, doctor says
By Andy
February 18, 2006 05:42 PM | Link to this
The new floor tile has been installed in the bathroom, a 3 piece KFC (original) has made it’s successful landing in my stomach and now it is time to dog finch out:
Access to acute care in the setting of emergency department overcrowding
Patients requiring hospital admission should not be held in emergency departments, hallways or waiting rooms for more than 6 hours.
When Patients Become Victims The Crime of Government-Run Health Care
Joshua suffered a severe asthma attack and was rushed to a nearby hospital. But his ambulance was turned away because the hospital was on “critical care bypass,� meaning the emergency room was full. The additional 18 minutes it took to reach a second hospital apparently cost him his life.
By finch
February 18, 2006 06:41 PM | Link to this
If health care in Canada is sooooo bad…
Why aren’t hospitals in border cities overwhelmed by sick and injured Canadians?
Why wasn’t health care even a minor issue in last month’s national elections in Canada??
You can post the questionable results of desperate Google searches all you want. But until you answer those two questions, your argument that Canada’s government health system is a disaster is full of doodie.