Bravo, Anne Budgell! The host of CBC Radio Noon neatly exposed Anthony Jenkins, an editorial cartoonist with The Globe and Mail, as too lazy to get his facts right.
The subject of the interview was a cartoon Jenkins did for the March 17 edition of The Globe. You can see the cartoon here.
In case the link goes down, the cartoon was split into two panels. The first was an image of Mars, with the heading: “2007: Euro space probe determines Martian south polar ice cap over 3 km thick.”
The next panel, also an image of Mars, reads: “2025: Joint Innu/Newfoundland space shuttle lands on ice cap to conduct feasibility study on clubbing to death young of life forms found there.” A word balloon pointing to the planet’s surface says, “She’s some thick here, St. John’s… ‘n’ Bardot-free d’jeez!”
Anne Budgell called the cartoonist and probed him about his knowledge of the hunt, pointing out that the Innu do not hunt seal. Jenkins was also unaware that we no longer club seals, referring to that old video from the 1980's as his source. His voice became shaky upon realizing that his lack of knowledge of the issue had been exposed, and he began muttering something about banana peel jokes. It’s a great interview and you can hear it by clicking here. You can also read more here (though you have to hear Budgell's interview - it's priceless).
Editorial cartoons are a form of journalism, so it is essential that cartoon writers get their facts right. In this case, Jenkins didn’t do his homework and was called on the carpet for it. The question now is, will he also get a rebuke from his bosses at The Globe and Mail?
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Just to make it easier to listen to, I made an mp3 and uploaded it: http://thescope.ca/mp3/budgell031907.mp3
I'm pretty sure Hakapiks are still used, and even though they are indeed more humane, to PETA-folk they represent the same thing as a club.
I like that Anne confronted him, but the interview left me feeling a little weird. The way she was laying into him seemed a bit like The O'Reilly Factor or something.
Thanks for loading the mp3 Elling. You are right, hakapiks are still used, though much less than guns (last I heard, 10% of kills were by hakapik, though I don't know the accuracy of this). Anne's interview didn't leave me feeling weird at all; Jenkins' cartoon made stupid mistakes and he deserved to be called on it.
Tony Jenkins, as an editorial cartoonist, has an obligation to use truth to make his points so as to allow his readers to form an opinion.
In this case he failed to that.
In failing to do this Jenkins allowed himself to become part of the problem of the dissemination of misrepresentation and untruths about the prosecution of the Atlantic Seal hunt.
Budgell did a good job of dealing with this issue. It was nice to see Jenkins "clubbed" with a plank of his own making.
I agree that Anne Budgell did a fabulous job in this interview. She called him on everything. The clip should be used as a perfect synopsis of the seal hunt debate, with outdated issues from someone ignorant of the facts being countered with logical, well-informed repsonses.
I did find it ironic that the cartoon was displayed on The Globe website for a time with ads for the province of N&L in rotation at the top and to the left of the cartoon.
http://newfoundlandincanada.blogspot.com/2007/03/canadas-national-spewspaper-mop-and.html
Is that irony? I don't know - it's sort of like if you belted a girlguide in the chops but then helped her sell cookies. I'm not sure that has a term?!
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