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| My "Interview" with the 2-person editorial board of the Pensacola News Journal today felt like a total ambush job...read about it below. |
My Spidey Sense was telling me something was amiss… This is/was the first time I have ever been
asked to sit down and talk with the entire two-person editorial board of the
PNJ. And what did I do to elicit this
invitation? Well, as I have done dozens
of times over the last 13 years, I had emailed in an op-ed for the PNJ’s
consideration. Here
is the 600 word guest editorial I sent them on Wednesday evening.
But instead of a yes or no (or pocket veto)—I was asked to
come sit down and talk to the two-person editorial board (+Jim Little was
brought in as well) earlier today.
Immediately, I was attacked by Andy Marlette. He had an almost rabid look in his eyes as he
began questioning me on a host of topics the second I sat down in the
conference room and editor Lisa Savage joined us…
“You wrote on your blog for years that I called you and told
you to stop making parody manipulations of my cartoons—but that isn’t true—I
never called you!” he said
accusingly. I told him that Jeremy
Knipper from the PNJ called on his behalf and said “Andy doesn’t like you using
his cartoons--stop” Which is a
fact. So yes, there is a distinction;
Andy told Jeremy Knipper to call me on his behalf to say I couldn’t use his
cartoons. It is a distinction with no
difference. Nevertheless, I said to Andy’s
representative at that time--“you’ve got that wrong, go ask your attorneys.” And Jeremy called back later to say “Yeah,
you can use them.” Andy didn’t like that
part of today’s meeting, I guess….
He then looked over to his editor, in almost a tattle-tale
whine, and said “He is taking my cartoons and changing them around and changing
the words!” and he continued “I don’t
think it is legal, It’s not legal for him to do this, right?!?” The editor responded to me “I don’t think you
can do that, but we will check, I’ll ask Barbara about this.” (I assumed this is their lawyer). I simply stated the cartoons I manipulated
were a parody, clearly marked and subject to fair use as such, and that I continue
to believe it is legal to utilize them for parody. (They will probably reach out to a senior
attorney within their Gannett organization, probably a sharp conservative
lawyer, and they will get their answer which will probably not align with what
they think the answer should be, I suspect.)
Meanwhile—the question barrage was about to begin.
Andy started a series of rapid-fire questions. “What do you think about the small number of
minorities in leadership in the county?”
“What do you think should be done about this?” What do you think I meant when I drew your
last name next to a confederate rebel flag in multiple cartoons?” “Why do you NOT think Senator Philip Beall
was a racist?” “Who said Philip Beall
was a white-supremacist?” “Do you blog anonymously?” “Are you homophobic?”
I felt like I was being grilled. A few times he busted out in an almost
nervous bout of laughter. It was weird.
“Why can’t you tell us about all the important legislation
that Senator Beall sponsored while he was in the senate for 7 years?” (I guess they thought I ought to be able to
regurgitate his legislative record on command, on the spot, from memory?)
“None of Beall’s family live in the area any more—what do
you make of that?”
“Why should we keep the Beall name on the Bridge—what does it matter?”
I took their gunfire and answered their questions for an
hour. I don’t think they liked my
answers or the fact that I would not answer some of the questions the way they
wanted me to answer them. They did not
like the fact that I pushed back against their line of questioning and held
fast and stood up to them. Here are some examples of their
questions and my answers:
Jeff Bergosh: “Andy—what
did you think of the first bridge committee meeting”
Andy Marlette: “I don’t
know”
Jeff Bergosh: “You were there—what do you mean you don’t
know?”
Andy Marlette: “I
guess it just seemed disorganized and not productive”
Jeff Bergosh: “What
do you mean? The elected a chair, set the meeting dates, decided upon goals and
objectives, and the format for the meetings—I think they accomplished a lot!”
Andy Marlette: “What
does the “American Grizzly” and “Bear Magazine ”in your version of my
