The dangers of using the "forbidden metaphor."

FEBRUARY 14, 2002 Cartoonist Apologizes For Bush-Towers Work Regrets Comparing Budget, Terrorist Attacks CONCORD, N.H. -- (AP)
Concord Monitor cartoonist Mike Marland apologized Thursday for publishing a drawing of a plane labeled "Bush Budget" crashing into two towers labeled "Social Security." "It was not my intention to desecrate the memory of those who died that day, nor to add to the anguish and sorrow of their loved ones or the city of New York," Marland wrote on the paper's opinion page Thursday. "To these people, all I can say is how profoundly sorry I am." Hundreds of readers and public officials criticized the Feb. 8 cartoon, saying it was insensitive to those still suffering from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center. "Equating the president's budget with terrorist attacks that took 3,000 lives is as wrong as wrong can be," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said after the cartoon appeared. "This is tasteless and an affront to the people of New York." Marland said the drawing was meant to illustrate the potential calamity of Bush's proposal to tap into the Social Security surplus. He said Thursday that, in hindsight, a less jarring image would have done the job. Marland wrote that he should have listened to his wife: "She was the first to tell me that maybe that Bush-Social Security cartoon wasn't such a good idea."

Since then he has published an apology and his editor has been fired.

More "forbidden metaphor" cartoons below.

Since September 11, several journalists have been canned for expressing views that were critical of George W. Bush. One was Dan Guthrie of Oregon, who had previously received an award for being the best columnist in that state. A lot of good that did him. Now another prize-winning journalist has been given the heave-ho. His name is Tim McCarthy, and for the last seven years, he's been the editor of the Courier, a weekly newspaper in Littleton, New Hampshire, owned by Salmon Press. Last year, he won the "Editorial Writer of the Year" award from the New Hampshire Press Association, and previously he'd won that award from the New England Press Association. But on February 13, he was fired. McCarthy cites two factors in his dismissal: His repeated editorializing against George W. Bush's recklessness, and his defense of a cartoonist who was under the gun for a controversial panel criticizing the President...

On top of all this was the dispute McCarthy had with his publisher over cartoonist Mike Marland, who draws for nine papers in New Hampshire, including the Courier and the Concord Monitor. In early February, Marland drew a cartoon for the Concord Monitor that depicted Bush flying a plane into two towers, one labeled "Social" and the other labeled "Security." The Monitor was inundated with angry mail, and the editor of that paper quickly apologized for running the cartoon, and Marland himself fell on his pen. (This, in itself, is worthy of a little "McCarthyism Watch" item. Mike Pride, editor of the Concord Monitor, wrote a column on February 10, entitled, "Why we shouldn't have run Marland's cartoon." Pride said he had mistakenly assumed that "enough time had passed for the wounds of September 11 to heal and for the terrorist attacks to take their place in the long history of political satire." On February 14, Marland wrote his own mea culpa in the Monitor: "I must agree with critics that, yes, a less jarring image would have done the job." He added: "It was not my intention to desecrate the memory of those who died that day. Nor to add to the anguish and sorrow of their loved ones or the city of New York. I am remorseful. I am regretful. To these people, all I can say is how profoundly sorry I am.") Back to Tim McCarthy and the Littleton Courier. Shortly after the cartoon controversy erupted, McCarthy got an e-mail from Rich Piatt saying he was canceling Marland's cartoon for financial reasons. "My immediate reaction was that this was political, and that they were worried about the controversy," McCarthy says, even though the cartoon never ran in the Courier. So McCarthy e-mailed his boss back: "Rich, Mike Marland got his start with this newspaper more than twenty years ago at the age of nineteen, right after he graduated from Lisbon High School," McCarthy wrote on February 11. "His work is one of the highlights of our publication . . . so I'm going to continue to publish his cartoons. I'm going to ask him to bill me directly, and I will pay for them out of my own pocket. It is that important to me, to this newspaper, and to this community. If money is the only issue involved, this should satisfy Salmon Press." The next day, Piatt sent McCarthy an e-mail to meet him at the office on February 13. Piatt called him in. "He was poking his finger at that news story" about Women in Black, McCarthy recalls, and Piatt said: "I'm terminating you as of now," "I asked him why," McCarthy says. "I don't have to give you a reason," Piatt said, according to McCarthy. "If I had to give you a reason, it would be insubordination. You're finished. Leave the building." Piatt gave McCarthy a letter, saying: "Today is your final day of employment with Salmon Press. You will be paid through Friday, February 15, 2002. In addition, you will be paid for unused paid personal hours through February 15, plus vacation." Those benefits amounted to $209.96. Piatt refused to return four phone calls seeking comment. At 63, McCarthy's been a working journalist for four decades. But no longer. "I would love to, but there's a lot of discrimination against old farts," he says. "Right now, I'm consulting with a couple of political candidates. Just trying to survive here." -- Matthew Rothschild