Caricature Presidents day: des noms qui marquent l'histoire

Caricature de DAVE GRANLUND, POLITICALCARTOONS.COM 

 Le Presidents day est célébré le troisième lundi de février.

Jon Stewart: représentant d'une tradition à préserver

Petit topo bien intéressant sur une tradition incarnée avec brio par Stephen Colbert et Jon Stewart. L'auteur Jack Shafer réfère à ces commentateurs humoristiques qui font dans la satire politique en utilisant l'expression "The needlers".

 "Before we bury Williams in a shallow grave, let’s not forget that wit and jocularity belong as much to journalism as they do to comedy, and that just because Williams has stumbled we shouldn’t force all TV readers to wear long, sad faces to convey their seriousness. There’s a long journalistic tradition of “The Needler,” the reporter or commentators who addresses controversies with humor and satire. In a 1962 article, scholars Henry Ladd Smith and James Knox called the journalistic lampooners from the 1800s “The Needlers,” and identified singled out for praise the pseudonymous trio of Artemus Ward, Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby, and Orpheus C. Kerr. Yes, Orpheus C. Kerr was pronounced “Orifice Seeker.” (Some claim it was pronounced “Office Seeker,” but ignore them.)

 The Needlers, write Smith and Knox, identified with their audience, and relied on the burgeoning presses of the times to reach the first real mass audiences. They weren’t gag writers, although they were all funny. What distinguished them was their “purposeful application of humor and satire” to the day’s issues. Ward attacked corrupt politicians and Cooperheads with his burlesques. Nasby, well before Stephen Colbert contorted himself into a right-wing vomit artist, created the literary persona of a “whisky-drinking, rabble-rousing, ignorant yokel” racist to puncture the intolerant and retrograde members of society. “He is so repulsive that he arouses strong sympathy for all the issues he attacks, which, of course, was the intention of his creator,” Smith and Knox write. Abraham Lincoln, a big fan, once said, “…for the genius to write these things, I would gladly give up my office.” Orifice Seeker did similar demolition on the Confederacy, but slung equally vicious barbs at Union generals.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/within-nbc-an-intense-debate-over-whether-to-fire-brian-williams/2015/02/11/8e87ac02-b22f-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html?hpid=z1

NBC divisé sur le cas Brian Williams

Chaque journée qui passe semble apporter de nouvelles informations sur le cas Brian Williams. Si la décision finale a été de suspendre le présentateur pour six mois, je continue à demander comment il fera pour effecteur un retour et regagner sa crédibilité. Plusieurs joueurs influents auraient préféré un congédiement à une suspension. Sous le couvert le l'anonymat on apprend que ses journalistes du réseau n'appréciaient pas Williams et ils décrivent un portrait peu flatteur. On connaissait les récits exagérés de la vedette du service de l'information, mais personne ne semblait en mesure de le contrôler. Williams gagne 10 millions de dollars par année, de quoi attiser bien des jalousies. Les ambitions de celui-ci allait au-delà du service de nouvelles et il aurait même demandé à ce qu'on considère sa candidature pour remplacer Jay Leno à la barre du Tonight show, poste dont a hérité Jimmy Fallon.

 "NBC journalists, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they have been warned not to speak publicly, told The Washington Post that they were stunned by how quickly Williams fell from one of the highest perches in broadcast news.

They also said they were not surprised by the allegations that Williams had inflated his involvement in news stories and what he supposedly witnessed while on assignment. They said his exaggerations were an open secret at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and became an inside joke, mostly because they were not made on “Nightly News.”

“We lost people in Iraq; to us it’s not a joke,” a longtime NBC producer said. “It’s not something you glorify or pound your chest about. You don’t need to inflate these things. There’s just an overwhelming sense of loss.”

There is also a sense that the newsroom has been adrift since Comcast Cable took over NBC Universal in 2011. NBC journalists said editors who once kept a close watch over the broadcast have departed, leaving Williams to operate with few meaningful checks and balances."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/within-nbc-an-intense-debate-over-whether-to-fire-brian-williams/2015/02/11/8e87ac02-b22f-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html?hpid=z1

Caricature "Super Angela Merkel" à la rescousse!

Caricature de TOM JANSSEN, THE NETHERLANDS

Caricature Boston frappé par l'hiver

Caricature de TAYLOR JONES, EL NUEVO DIA, PUERTO RICO

Caricature l'hiver est long

Caricature de JOE HELLER, GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE

Caricature The daily no-show: départ de Jon Stewart

Caricature de STEVE SACK, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUN

Caricature Neil Armstrong et ses souvenirs secrets de la lune

Caricature de JOE HELLER, GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE 

 On apprenait récemment (2012) que la veuve de Neil Armstrong a retrouvé dans leur maison un sac contenant des objets utilisés pendant la mission Apollo 11. Les objets ont été donnés au Musée national de l'air et de l'espace. pourquoi en parler aujourd'hui? Parce qu'on vient tout juste de certifier que les objets étaient bel et bien dans le module lunaire "Eagle". Je crois que je m'intéresserais surtout aux images de la caméra 16 mm...

  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/09/neil-armstrong-moon-landing-artifacts-found/23151879/

Caricature Brian Williams et Bill Cosby

Caricature de RANDY BISH, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Caricature Jon Stewart quitte mais propose des successeurs!

Caricature de DAVE GRANLUND, POLITICALCARTOONS.COM

Brian Willims doit démissionner (Washington Post)

Si je devais écrire un article sur le sujet, je crois qu'il pourrait ressembler à celui-ci. On a droit à l'erreur, mais il y aurait plus qu'une erreur pour Williams et quelle crédibilité aurait-il pour commenter ou analyser une histoire comme la sienne? C'est un peu ce à quoi je pensais hier en me demandant si une suspension de six mois serait suffisante pour contribuer à rétablir sa réputation...

 "To the extent that the job is more than merely reading words off a teleprompter, it is to be the institutional voice of trust and reason, reassuring in a crisis, the ultimate reliable narrator. When issues of trustworthiness become a distraction, the anchor loses his credibility, and therefore his perch.

Some discussion of Williams’s fate has involved his central role at NBC and whether the network could “afford” to lose its most recognizable franchise. This is the network version of “too big to fail” — that Williams is too important to can. I see it the opposite way: Williams’s elevated status subjects him to a higher standard of behavior, and more rigorous consequences. The face of NBC News cannot afford to be so scarred."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/brian-williams-needs-to-go/2015/02/10/5b3d13be-b14e-11e4-827f-93f454140e2b_story.html?hpid=z2