Why Did The New York Times Kill This Image of Henry Kissinger? (Not for His Naked Butt Cheeks!)

[babylonsister]

Why Did The New York Times Kill This Image of Henry Kissinger? (Not for His Naked Butt Cheeks!)

By Steve Brown, AlterNet. Posted March 9, 2009.

This Kissinger image by David Levine is one of 320 cartoons that the NYT commissioned and paid $1 million in "kill fees" after getting cold feet.



The Kissinger image below (by David Levine) is one of 320 illustrations – by 142 of the world's most acclaimed contemporary artists – that The New York Times itself originally commissioned for its Op-Ed Pages, but then got cold feet about running, and eventually paid more than $1 million in “kill fees” to hide from public view (sometimes for as long as 38 years).



What didn't the Times want you to see?


Can you imagine illustrations so "blasphemous," so "politically embarrassing," so sexually "over the line" that The New York Times gladly paid a fortune just to protect your delicate eyes from being exposed to them?

You’ll find hundreds of such allegedly “not-fit-to-print” illustrations – together with the bizarre and often ludicrous reasons for suppressing them – in a sly and deliciously funny new book called All The Art That’s Fit to Print (And Some That Wasn’t), by Jerelle Kraus, former Art Editor of the Times Op-Ed and Editorial Pages, who reluctantly quit her "dream job" at the Times after 13 years in order to publish it.

And we're fortunate she did. Her book (published by Columbia University Press) rescues 320 eye-stopping illustrations by 142 of the world’s most provocative graphic artists, including David Levine, Jules Feiffer, Ronald Searle, Milton Glaser, Charles Addams, Maurice Sendak, Edward Gorey, Ralph Steadman, Larry Rivers, Saul Steinberg, Ben Shahn, Art Speigelman, Andy Warhol, Garry Trudeau, and many more.

Publishing these illustrations should have been an occasion for pride and rejoicing at the Times. Instead, many were killed by panicky editors – often just minutes before press time.

What spooked these worldly Times editors?

more, and more images at link:

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/130698/why_did_the_new_york_times_kill_this_image_of_henry_kissinger_(not_for_his_naked_butt_cheeks!)/

[seemslikeadream]

1. That's a keeper

Thanks :hi:

[OhioChick]

2. K&R

:kick:

[BrklynLiberal]

3. K&R

[Blue_Tires]

4. k+r

[fasttense]

5. The suicidal rat is a must see at the link. n/t