When Liberal Humor Goes Wrong: Hurricane Edition

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, and the constant criticism of President Trump’s response to the disaster, a number of cartoons popped up mocking Republicans, particularly those who voted for Trump.  Politico columnist Matt Wuerker created the above cartoon, and though Politico was forced to delete a Tweet of the cartoon after excessive backlash, that didn’t stop Wuerker from attempting to explain himself:

I’m not one of the overly sensitive “too soon” types who would be offended by what some would consider “tasteless” humor.  And I’m also loath to contribute to the “outrage machine” that vilifies people into giving up their right to free speech. But it is noteworthy that Wuerker (and others) didn’t bother to look at the demographics of the residents of Houston before drawing their cartoons:

Still, perhaps most ironic of all is that Harris County – the region most devastated by Hurricane Harvey – voted for Hillary in last year’s election and over 50% of the population is non-white…

Which, as Zerohedge detailed, was obviously not something infamous French paper Charlie Hebdo considered when it made the below cartoon their cover image:

For those whose French is a little rusty – the ‘cover-art’ of neo-Nazis drowning says “God Exists! He Drowned All The Neo-Nazis In Texas”

Perhaps Charlie Hebdo feels (accurately) that Texans are less likely to react the same way as the terrorists who stormed the offices of the newspaper and gunned employees to death over their caricature of the prophet Muhammad. However, this sort of mockery may give these same heroic Americans pause the next time they have to deploy overseas and fight another World War to restore France’s independence.

This was hardly the end of it.  The Washington Post (of all places) detailed a number of cartoons mocking white Texans and President Trump, again with their lack of awareness as to who the real victims were:

Again, this author does not mind what others would consider to be “tasteless” humor, but the people who are drawing these cartoons and the publications that post them are the same ones that will turn around and complain bitterly if the shoe was on the other foot.  Imagine how they would react, if conservatives were drawing cartoons mocking liberal victims of a natural disaster?

Perhaps people would be more sympathetic if their cartoons were actually funny, and not chalk-full of hypocrisy, as WaPo again illustrated with another cartoon they shared:

Indeed, in doing the double duty of mocking Hurricane Harvey victims while simultaneously criticizing Trump’s pardon of Arpaio, they didn’t point out the ironies in the (far worse) behavior of his predecessors, which Trump himself cited:

He said that in contrast to past pardons, Arpaio has been a force in fighting illegal immigration and supporting law enforcement.

Trump said President Obama pardoned FALN member Oscar Lopez Rivera and convicted U.S. military leaker Chelsea Manning.

He pointed out that President Clinton also pardoned investor Marc Rich, who he said illegally bought oil from Iran during the Hostage Crisis.

In 1983, Rich was convicted on 65 counts of tax evasion, wire fraud and his actions involving Tehran.

Trump surmised that Rich was pardoned because he gave “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

He noted that Clinton also commuted the sentence of Susan Rosenberg, a member of the Weather Underground militant group.

Rosenberg had been sentenced to 56 years on weapons charges.

Weather Underground members were notably involved in the 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck at the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County, N.Y.

A Brinks guard and two members of the Nyack Police Department were killed in an ensuing shootout.

Trump wasn’t wrong in the slightest – his pardon of Arpaio (which is his first one to date) pales in comparison to the crimes his predecessors pardoned away.  But good luck trying to explain that to the cartoonists; they still think the victims of Harvey are predominantly Trump voters.

Again, I don’t believe in the premise of WaPo’s “too soon” article, where they merely blamed “time” for the lack of humor in the cartoons mocking Harvey victims.  But, if they’re prepared to unleash their own outrage machine against their opponents, they better be able to take it when the same outrage machine comes after them.

Then again, expecting honest reporting and treatment from the mainstream media is undoubtedly a request that will fall on deaf ears.