Poor Judgement in a Fast World
Dear Readers of thefiresidepost.com:
I have to personally apologize to readers of thefiresidepost.com (FSP). I am the Editor – and sometimes I need to be edited. I have said before that I am more clever than I am smart – and I proved that point again this week. The visual at the top right is intended to represent poor judgement (in case someone does not get the point).
A post titled Trayvon and Black on Black Violence had a racial cartoon attached. I will include that cartoon here in my attempt to show how foolish I can be.
We live in a fast world. We at FSP are in the same hurry as the rest of the world – and particularly the internet world. We often act before clearly thinking through the consequences. The post was all about racism – thus a cartoon about racism was grabbed from the stock photos on the internet and included as a accompanying visual. That process takes about five seconds. And it seems that five seconds to not enough time to regulate poor judgement. I am sorry.
I traverse the internet most mornings to read the NY Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Slate, Comedy Central, and other online news. My purpose is two-fold. I like to read the news and I look for content for FSP. I am usually in a casual state of mind. Occasionally one of the more reputable news agencies posts something offensive – or they have misleading headlines – or they are blatantly attempting to lure readers. I have been quick to note their lack of judgement. I know what they are doing because I am doing the same thing – searching for ratings.
When Ben Franklin wrote his very intelligent witticisms in Poor Richards Almanac he had to invest an afternoon in setting the type on his printing press. I suspect during that time he had time to reflect and decided against poor judgement. The internet is not like that. I can type five hundred words in ten minutes and have it posted for the world to view in another twenty seconds.
We have a large stock of internet generated photos and we run to our stock when we think we need a visual. I grabbed the wrong one two days ago. I am sorry.
The cable news business has caught on to the potential for disastrous comments by their staffs. Many have a ten or twenty second delay on their broadcast and an editor sits with his hand on a button – ready to silence inappropriate words. Online news is similar. In the large companies there are editors who evaluate material before it is posted. The Huffington Post even edits comments before posting them. So what happens when the editor himself is a wacko? We end up with an inappropriate racial cartoon on a very serious topic of horrific violence – that is what happened this week.
We will try to do better in the future.
Respectfully,
Ohg Rea Tone
Comment by Herb Shane on 29 March 2012:
Mr. Clark,
I just read an article in your magazine this morning titled “stop apologizing.” It could not have been more relevant save had it been written for JUST THIS POST. (I LOVE Bill Maher, by the way. Huge fan.)
We are so caught up in finding things wrong and complaining constantly that we completely miss the point.
We delve so far into the “fluff” that substance forever eludes us.
Which is EXACTLY the point I was trying to make with my previous comments.
Unfortunately, Gary, life is – for some of us – much more than a fairy tale book;
There are those of us who would choose to read the book rather than flip through the pop-up pictures.
Some of us choose to live life and affect its outcome instead of just watching and waiting to see how others deal with it.
Respect to you for attempting to get every angle of the story and the opinions of all sides.
The cartoon? Comical. NOT offensive. Save to those who would rather complain and focus on negative rather than see the point being made.
Don’t apologize, sir:
Sorry is the ONE thing we don’t need more of.
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Comment by Steve Rosse on 19 June 2012:
I’d be interested to know what your policy is on intellectual property. That cartoon is of Tintin, which is still, I believe, protected under valid copyright. Do you get permission from an artist (or his estate) to use his work?
Comment by Ohg Rea Tone on 19 June 2012:
For more information on the cartoon go to http://thejuxtapositionape.blog.com/2011/11/03/is-cartoon-book-tin-tin-racist/
Comment by Ohg Rea Tone on 19 June 2012:
Mr. Rosse – we often use stock photos from the internet. When we look them up we generally go to google and query ‘stock images of whatever’. Then we take our chances – often the photos have links back to the site where we found them.