NewsCorp Smug About Sending Robert Crumb Packing
He was being polite. And he's not here. Image: Sydney Graphic fest
It only took one article for the notoriously ornery cult cartoonist Robert Crumb to cancel his Sydney Graphic arts festival headlining appearance. And NewsCorp journalists wonder what the big deal is.
In a July 31 article titled ‘Smutty show a comic outrage’, Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph wheeled out professional pearl-clutcher Hetty Johnston of The Won’t Somebody Think Of The Children Association Bravehearts to comment on counterculture comics legend Robert Crumb.
Crumb was due to appear at Sydney’s Graphic arts festival, taking place at the Opera House on 20 and 21 August. The man behind Fritz The Cat, Mr Natural, and many big-bootied broads was to appear ‘In Conversation‘ with Fantagraphic Books co-founder Gary Groth. The Sunday Tele took one look at the work of this “self-confessed sex pervert” and thought OUTRAGE!
It was scary enough when the article quoted a spokesperson for the federal Attorney-General’s office that Crumb’s work “would almost certainly be refused classification”. Scarier is The Australian’s follow-up story today, essentially gloating that the NewsCorp character assassination scared him off.
They note that the print headline on the Sunday Tele article was “Cult Genius Or Filthy Weirdo” (the online version captions him as a “cult genius” who is “top [sic] appear at the Sydney Opera House”). The Australian’s own headline said he was “miffed” by the article. It’s a dismissive description indeed for a feature that used Johnston to describe him as “sick and deranged”, “depraved”, “crude”, “warped” and “perverted”, and used smutty quotation marks to describe him as a “seminal” figure in the underground comic scene.
Understandably, Crumb told The Australian that the Sunday Tele article “made me look very, very bad”.
He went on say, “All it takes is a few people who overreact to something like that to show up and cause unpleasantness. I have a lot of anxiety about having to confront some angry sexual assault crisis group.”
Anxiety and neurosis are hallmarks of Crumb’s work, but we in Australia know Hetty Johnston is nothing more than a headline grabber and toothless crank, wheeled out when writers want to inch closer to the front page of tabloids by using “shock”, “outrage” or “sick” in a three-word 72-point screamer headline. The OFLC is less forgiving.
Crumb might be overreacting but mature Australians lose out once again to a vocal, philistine minority and puritanical, puerile journalism. Then again, if you don’t gloat about your victories, no one will know you won.
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I was looking forward to seeing Robert Crumb at the Graphic Arts Festival and because of idiots
like professional hand wringer Hetty Jonston and the journo at The Sunday Telegraph, we are going to miss out.
I am saddened and disappointed that we have such small minded people chasing away comic icons like Crumb.
Damn right, it’s sad.
A public response to Bravehearts call fro a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse
With Bravehearts dropping a call for a Royal Commission as a part of the deal come to with COAG in 2009 and now claiming the failure of the COAG process and the government process Bravehearts are now apparently claiming ownership of what must obviously be the correct procedure this time although the process put forward by Bravehearts is almost entirely a financial one for which there is little need for collaboration or interaction with actual survivors. This aspect is contrasted in the caliber of recent work coming from Monash University which displayed a great deal of professionalism through its inclusion of an understanding of the victims, their needs and the reality of these crimes in a knowledge building process.
Bravehearts should take their blatant funding attempt elsewhere as it is not appropriate that they should punt for funds that are desperately needed where they can count and where they can be used for the survivors of childhood sexual abuse and other abuses by clergy as well as those at risk of suicide. This attempt to hi-jack the plight of clergy sexual abuse survivors is one of the issues that must be raised in any properly setup inquiry in these abuses and the responses. The point of my response here is to advise Bravehearts that this communication forms the basis of a submission to the Victorian inquiry together with a request for this form of manipulation and this instance of attempted manipulation to be investigated so that standards and recommendations can be arrived at.
A second point I would like to raise is re your statement: “In particular, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody stands as a good example of how the collective involvement and co-operation of the Commonwealth and the States/Territories can effectively address complex social issues facing the entire Nation.” Can you point me to any inclusive (supported by a majority of stake holders) peer reviewed information showing how the intervention has been such an outstanding success and how those success can be translated into this current circumstance of the failures of politics and religion when confronted with the crimes of clergy, politicians and others.
The Bravehearts definition of the problem fails to take into consideration the known abeyance of government, judiciary, policing, healthy, community and charity areas towards the Catholic and other churches and it fails to take heed of very clear advise in this regard made in the Forde inquiry.
These are not incidental matters. These are not insignificant matters yet they failed to rate a mention. This flaw alone should be sufficient for Bravehearts to warrant a complete removal from public access and for Bravehearts to step back from this entire arena until it can be shown to be a credible witness for those it claims to represent.
http://www.bravehearts.org.au/docs/royal_commission_2012.pdf
Conversation with Hetty 18 July 2012
JohnB 0756412311
http://www.molestedcatholics.com/data/conversations/hetty-johnston-blackmailing-attempt.mp3