I wrote Ryan about this, but it still bothers me, so to vent publicly: the first sentence of the MLK quote is bogus (the rest is good). I gather Andrew thought that scare-quoting ‘words’ let him off the hook of journalistic integrity, but I just don’t think readers are that smart. (Well, I’m not, put it that way.)
I think we dishonor MLK if we don’t quote, or even ‘quote’ him, correctly.
Fair point, Barry. I did know that the quote – at least parts – were bogus before I hit “export” on this one. As you correctly assumed, that was the reason for “words” in quotes. I was attempting to cleverly chronicle this unique moment in time by countering absurdity with absurdity. I’ve failed before. No big.
I could argue, in Jon Stewart-y fashion, that we’re all in big trouble if we need to need to quibble about the journalistic integrity of a comic strip – I assume MLK’s legacy won’t be tarnished too greatly by this week’s Seven-O-Heaven – but yeah, okay. It’s cool.
I wrote Ryan about this, but it still bothers me, so to vent publicly: the first sentence of the MLK quote is bogus (the rest is good). I gather Andrew thought that scare-quoting ‘words’ let him off the hook of journalistic integrity, but I just don’t think readers are that smart. (Well, I’m not, put it that way.)
I think we dishonor MLK if we don’t quote, or even ‘quote’ him, correctly.
just saying.
Fair point, Barry. I did know that the quote – at least parts – were bogus before I hit “export” on this one. As you correctly assumed, that was the reason for “words” in quotes. I was attempting to cleverly chronicle this unique moment in time by countering absurdity with absurdity. I’ve failed before. No big.
I could argue, in Jon Stewart-y fashion, that we’re all in big trouble if we need to need to quibble about the journalistic integrity of a comic strip – I assume MLK’s legacy won’t be tarnished too greatly by this week’s Seven-O-Heaven – but yeah, okay. It’s cool.
Just sayin’.
“It’s always darkest before it goes pitch black.”
By Alas.
Nice piece from the Christian Science Monitor about how the supposed MLK quote appearing in this strip got mis-attributed across the web:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/0503/How-Osama-bin-Laden-s-death-sparked-a-fake-Martin-Luther-King-quote