Since I Know About Media Pile-ons...
Count me out of the Bruce "Mallard Fillmore" Tinsley DUI pile-on. It's icky.
I've only had one interaction with the cartoonist, and it was a singularly pleasant one. I invited him to be interviewed for one of my ATTITUDE anthologies. Why? Well, he draws in a different style, he's political and he takes unorthodox positions. In other words, he's a subversive (conservative) cartoonist. "Mallard Fillmore" ain't no "Doonesbury" (what is?), but it's much better than people--liberal people--say. Mallard detractors mostly despise his politics, but rather than simply say that they insult the strip's execution. Well, if it's bullshit when it happens to me, it's bullshit when it happens to him.
Unfortunately I was unable to secure, despite Tinsley's sincere attempts, the rights to reprint his strips. This sucks, because I really wanted to have some conservative artists in the book.
As for the DUI, well, that could happen to anyone who knocks back three or four beers in an hour or two in a city without decent mass transit, i.e., most people reading this. Speculation that he's an alcoholic is just that. If Tinsley has issues, he ought to be allowed the privacy to seek help without being ridiculed by a Standard Issue American Media Pile-on. If not, one presumes he'll choose a designated driver next time.
The hypocrisy issue has come up. After all, Tinsley often mocks Ted Kennedy for alleged drunkenness in his strip. It's a valid criticism, for sure, but the above stuff is why I would urge people to lay off. Being liberal, after all, means being understanding--even to those who aren't understanding themselves. Besides, mocking TK's supposed drinkyness (sic) isn't exactly on par with the hypocrisy of those who dodged the draft sending other people's children to war. Tinsley's sins are of taste, not life or death.
Cut the dude some slack, and let him figure out his life.
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I know this is way too late, but I thought this post on Tinsley was interesting, and I want to thank you for posting it.
ReplyDeleteToo bad Scott Stantis' "Prickly City" wasn't around yet when you were working on Attitude 1. That would've been an interesting interview.
You're a better man than I.
ReplyDeleteI would like to say, regarding the execution of his strip, that Tinsley doesn't really understand satire. He almost always tilts at straw men, which is par for the political satire course, but he often misuses the idea of comical critique to the point where his strip becomes a poison-pen letter. His mistreatment of "mainstream media" repeats lies spread by rightwing "watchdog" groups - I had an email exchange where he actually referred me to a site so transparently propagandistic it would have made Rush Limbaugh do a double-take. He had one strip where he had Peter Jennings being coached to call the RNC convention a gathering of thugs - just rabid crap. Yeah, he didn't send anyone to war. He just tried his best to put lying warmongers and profiteers in power.
To hit a .14 on the BAC test would take rather more the "three or four beers in an hour or two", and this was not his first run-in with the law over public drunk.
ReplyDeleteI cut him no slack, and i cut Ted Kennedy no slack - they're both just different faces of the bastard who smashed my pretty cousins face so badly that they counted thirty-plus fractures before they gave up. An attorney friend of mine describes DUI by the oxymoronic but accurate phrase "attempted negligent homicide".
Just because you (or Tinsley) haven't killed anyone yet doesn't mean it's okay to drive drunk and that you (or Tinsley) ought to get a pass if you do.