The editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee newspaper has said he plans no disciplinary action against a staff editorial cartoonist for a cartoon that deeply offended readers all across the country.
“While I certainly regret that readers have interpreted the cartoon in a way neither the Bee nor Rex Babin intended, I don’t envision publishing an apology or a retraction,” said David Holwerk, in an e-mailed reply to an inquiry posed by WorldNetDaily last week.
A number of readers became upset at a Rex Babin cartoon, published Sept. 13, that was based upon a Vietnam-era photo of 9-year-old Kim Phuc, photographed naked and running away from an area that had just been bombed by jet fighters.
In his cartoon, Babin includes the image of Phuc and other children in the photo with background images of a New York City street becoming overcome by dust caused by the collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers.
Both towers collapsed a week ago, within an hour of being struck by two separate airliners that were hijacked by terrorists and intentionally flown into the structures. The Pentagon was also struck by a hijacked airliner.
Eric Hogue, a radio talk show host in Sacramento, dedicated most of his Sept. 13 show to discussion of the cartoon. He said most callers to his show were outraged – especially the Vietnam veterans in the audience.
“The Sacramento Bee needs to fire this guy, and the paper needs to offer a statement to Sacramento and to America of great apology,” Hogue told WND.
But Holwerk disagreed, defending Babin’s cartoon and the paper’s decision to publish it.
“Last week’s attacks were, as President Bush stated, acts of war. The victims at the World Trade Center were, by any definition, innocent civilian victims. The picture of the Vietnamese children is a striking image of innocent civilian victims caught in the horror of war,” Holwerk said.
“The attack on the World Trade Center has brought that same horror home to Americans on their own soil for the first time in living memory. The cartoon compares the plights of these victims, not the Vietnam war and a terrorist attack,” he added.
Babin defended his work last week.
“I see all victims of war as the same,” he told WND, “whether it’s on someone else’s soil or ours. When I saw those people running through the streets of New York, I thought, ‘We’ve seen this before, and that’s ironic.'”
Previous story:
Cartoon offends U.S. sensibilities
