Anne Budgell skewers sloppy cartoonist

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?