Entertainment

August 30, 2006

For weeks the media has been obsessed by the circus surrounding the arrest and transfer of John Mark Karr, who confessed to the 1996 killing of JonBenet Ramsey. DNA tests prove he’s not the killer. In the lead up to the results 24 hour network news tracked each nauseating detail of Karr’s arrest, flight from Bangkok to LAX (including everything he ate on board), and his journey on to Boulder, Colorado. Columnists and irate callers to talkline shows went on for days on how horrible it was to transfer such a dangerous man with business class treatment. Many of my own compadres in the editorial cartooning field felt it necessary to weigh in on John Mark Karr.

So, ten years after the initial media circus surrounding the death of a little girl, the world was treated to another media circus surrounding the arrest of an obviously disturbed man. For what purpose? The legacy of this whole story may very well be the frenzy surrounding this story. Media frenzies have become the mainstay of 24 hour news coverage and they often result from isolated occurence when nothing else seems to be happening or when it’s deemed necessary to break from constant and rather fatiguing news stories. Was the media collectively getting a little tired of covering the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel before John Mark Karr’s creepy face appeared on tv screens? I’d say so.

OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson, Gary Condit, Elian Gonzalez, Terri Schiavo and JonBenet Ramsey are people whose names have inspired so much coverage and so much air time not just on FOX and CNN, but also on the covers of People and the National Inquirer. All to the benefit of rubberneckers. Even the recent silly antics of Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise have been deemed significant enough by media outlets to warrant them #1 news story placement. I guess it’s what the surveys show people want to hear about.

Next year at this time they’ll still be talking about Israel and Hezbollah. John Mark Karr’s name will be a distant memory.

Tuesday December 16, 2003

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 16, 2003

The Not-so Metrosexual

Gary J. Bass, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, says the footage of Saddam Hussein following his capture on Saturday served a crucial purpose: shattering his image.

“Whatever godlike aura Saddam had has been pretty punctured by the images of him bedraggled, and some American doctor checking him for lice and poking around in his mouth,” Bass said. “Doesn’t get much more humiliating than that.” 

These images will resonate strongly in Iraq, said Mideast human rights expert Mahmood Monshipouri of Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. 

“They saw him in the TV footage as a man who was somewhat disoriented, very subdued and submissive rather than somebody who was putting up a fight,” he said. “He could have killed himself as a matter of honor, not to be in the hands of the American soldiers. 

“The images that were projected yesterday had tremendous impact.’’ (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Friday January 31, 2003

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 31, 2003

The Excess Information Age

Imagine a Canada in which every citizen is finger-printed and retina-scanned.

Imagine massive government databases that use these biometric identifiers to catalogue people’s travel habits at home and abroad, their Internet usage, their e-mail and cell phone conversations and even videotapes them as they converse on a street corner. Such a nightmare scenario was tabled Wednesday in the staid House of Commons by the federal ombudsman appointed to safeguard Canadian privacy. And George Radwanksi says this Orwellian society could be the natural evolution of the Liberal government’s “unprecedented assault” on privacy rights. 

“A year and half ago, if anyone had described the measures now being introduced, no one would have thought it would happen,” the federal privacy commissioner told a news conference after he submitted his report. 

“It’s easy in a country like Canada to say bad things don’t happen, nobody would intrude on our rights … (but) all we have to do is look back at history.” 

Whether it be the internment of Japanese Canadians in the 1940s or the RCMP opening mail and torching barns in Quebec in the 1970s, “we’re not immune from excesses by the state,” said Radwanski (Source: Injustice Busters)

 

March 6, 1999

March 6, 1999Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – March 6, 1999

The 1999 Juno Award Ceremony in Hamilton. Featuring Terry Cooke, Sheila Copps, Dominic Agostino, Toni Skarica, Bob Morrow, Geddy Lee, RUSH, Tragically Hip, Lillian Ross, Rita McNeil, Barenaked Ladies, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Mike Bullard, Sloan, Larry Flynt,