Friday Funday: Truth, Lies, And Friendship

By the time you read this today, chances are good that one or more members of our staff will be at the 2012 North Central Chapter National Cartoonists Society meeting in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Not only is the North Central Tooners a professional group of incredibly talented individuals - they're also our friends.

Like any group of professionals, we don't all have the same ideas about important topics like politics, the future of cartooning, and what beverage tastes best after a late night of roaming the streets of Sioux Falls and having some pirogis.

For the member of our Daily Felltoon staff who also toils in the national broadcast media, Wednesday night's unprofessional reaction by some of our broader media colleagues was a bit of a surprise. We're all used to overreaction by the extreme media blowhards, especially those in right-wing radio, who've become experts at making mountains out of molehills.

What surprised us - and especially our broadcast staffer - was the level of pure whorish groveling that so many in the mainstream media fell to immediately after the Presidential debate.

As we stated yesterday, at best, the debate was a wash for both candidates. President Obama's performance didn't meet the high expectations too many had set on him, while Mr. Romney's petulant, mendacious performance had neither facts or details in it anywhere. That didn't stop most of the media having a massive knee-jerk reaction after the debate Wednesday night.

By Thursday morning, however, members of our staff and a few other ethical journalists had been working late into the night, making sure everyone knew exactly how many lies Mitt Romney told in that debate. By Thursday afternoon, some of our media colleagues began to feel guilty about selling out and hopping on board the Romney wagon - so they began to turn their opinions around about who actually won, based on the fact that Romney had given no facts.

Many professionals in the larger media are now grudgingly accepting what we first noted - or sagely following our lead - that the debate was, in fact, a wash, mostly because of Mitt Romney's horrendous lying.

While we're glad our broadcast staffer now feels a bit more vindicated, the rest of our staff has to say - we're glad our main focus is in physical and digital print. For cartoonists especially, there's an unwritten rule that we create and draw what we do - and we don't worry about responding or apologizing. Our work stands on it's own, for better or worse - and then we move on.

Many of our friends in the North Central Tooners feel the same - and those who don't, don't judge the others.

We hope this weekend, whatever group of friends you have, they accept you for who you are, whatever your opinions are.

We also hope your friends pick up the bar tab, as we're certain our friends in Sioux Falls will. Right, guys?