FOX NEWS article on Speedy

[Jon Cooke]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,48872,00.html


-Jon

[Joe Tully]

Ever since Jerry put that old Speedy article back on the sidebar of his main page, I've seen that article from hispanicsonline.com posted all over the place on the internet. Hopefully all of this publicity will have some effect on the people at CN.

[Thad Komorowski]

Let's hope all of this publicity gets Speedy back! Then it'll make CN more worth watching...


-Thad

[rodney]

Or they could just decide to ban Pepe LePew as well.

[barnyarddawg]

We're not about pushing the boundary

"I see!" said the blind man to his deaf son.


"These stereotypes are ingrained when we're young. And what do kids watch? Cartoons," he said. "I know the adults are saying, 'Oh God, it's just Speedy Gonzales,' but these are impressions that are put in very early and very hard to pull out. I'm the last person to hold a sign for political correctness, but kids absorb this thing on a preconscious level."

That's a little ridiculous, wouldn't y'all agree? Following that logic, all of us who watched Speedy Gonzales when they were young, now thinks that all Mexicans act like the mice in the Speedy cartoons, and we can only hope and pray to be rescued from these early "impressions". :yawn:

[jhaimleds]

That place: The Cartoon Network Latin America, where, ironically enough, Speedy Gonzales is "hugely popular," Goldberg said.

Common Sense is no longer common.

[rodney]

So are they saying that we're supposed to think that mexicans hate mice and ducks and only eat cheese?

[Brian Cruz]

As a hispanic male with a Mexican girlfriend, I can safely say that anyone who wants to ban Speedy is moron. I have never met a single human being who thought Speedy was a negative stereotype. In fact, just the opposite is true. Speedy is a hero. He's always the good guy. He's the only positive Mexican role model I have ever seen. I say that the idea of banning Speedy is itself racist. Apparently it's only okay to air cartoons with white people in them.

[rodney]

My understanding is that the whining isn't about Speedy, but all of the other mice. (Slowpoke etc.) Either way, this ultra-PC crap is highly annoying.

[Anyone00]

I can't help but think most people who are offended by Speedy are probably white.

[Matthew Hunter]

Well, the reporter doing it asked me some questions about it. I told them all we knew here at Toon Zone (and yes, Brian,I gave them a link and a plug!). about the letters from CN, the late night acme Hours, all that. All I can say is that whoever that spokesperson lady is in the article, she is evil and must be destroyed. First of all, she is inaccurate. "It" hasn't been off TV for "years", but about a year and a half to two years. And what's up with this "21st Century" garbage? What, it's new milennium so all of a sudden cartoons can't be edgy, funny, and socially observant? I want to find this media campaign being started to get Speedy back (finally, we are not alone in our anger), and I think this website needs to join it. Daniel Wineman and Ted Turner were bad enough, but this time it's getting to be really, really bad. Viva Gonzales!
-Matthew

[Brian Cruz]

In fairness to Laurie Goldberg (the CN person quoted in the article) she was put in a very hard position in attempting to answer Fox's questions. It wasn't her decision to get rid of Speedy, but she still had to explain and defend the company policy (which we all know isn't really possible) because that's her job. She's really a very nice person who has helped TZ out in the past, and I hate to see her get blamed for anything.

[Thad Komorowski]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure if anyone here worked at CN, they'd do the same thing. I mean, the woman was only trying to protect her job...


-Thad

[Nelson]

Just read that article about "Speedy" and I personally think that CN spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg needs to be fired from her positon as soon as possible. :mad: :mad: :mad:

But it's okay the CN can show such Gay stereotype characters "HIM" from PP Girls and "THE RED GUY" from Cow And Chicken which some scenes from both of these programs are more offensive (the characters themselves) than Speedy would ever be, but CN won't dare edit any of their home made crap junk..it just wouldn't happen.

[Matthew Hunter]

I don't blame her for the censoring of Speedy Gonzales, we already know who's to blame there, as I mentioned before. It's just the way she put it I didn't care for. Editing gunshots to the head on occasion is understandable, but censoring a whole chunk of the Looney Tunes series because of a Mexican mouse who leads a relatively adult lifestyle is beyond stupid. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Speedy Gonzales, not to mention that he is still very popular. That statement she made didn't make me happy,(inaccuracy and stupidity in one quote!) but if Laurie Goldberg has been a help to Toon Zone in the past, do you know how to contact her? Perhaps if we're nice, we can get a little more detailed explanation...when you're talking to a big news corporation like that, you can't be too forthcoming. I don't know for sure, but I think this family of sites here at Toon Zone may be able to do something about this. I don't know if every person visiting, using, or assisting Toon Zone cares, but a lot of people do. I think you could say that we are 'partners' with CN in the sense that so much news and information gets released through us, I think maybe a petition from Toon Zone members and visitors would be a good start. They'd at least take notice if we get the right people to send it to. Brian, I would be more than willing to head something like that up. Feel free to PM me if you don't want the information to be broadcast :rolleyes:
-Matthew

[Jon Cooke]

I really hope that all this sudden publicity will cause the bigshots and CN to give the Gonzales cartoons a second look. If they have such a problem with some of the more stereotypical supporting characters, why not just keep those out of the rotation. And *NOT* the entire series. There are still plenty of innocent cartoons where the ONLY characters are Speedy and Sylvester or Speedy and Daffy ("Nuts and Volts", "Moby Duck", "Road to Andalay", etc.).


-Jon

[Daffyfan2002]

Not only that. I've read previously that the only reason they didn't air the Daffy/Speedy cartoons because they thought they were of "poorer quality." Then how come they air the DePatie-Freleng Road Runner cartoons? Isn't that the same situation?

[lislebartman]

Kudos! What a great article!

Now maybe some of those AOL/Time-Warner executives will finally realize what a treasured character Speedy Gonzales really is! In fact, I'm watching "West Of The Pesos" right now! :D

[Jon Cooke]

I have got word that Virginia Cueto, the Associate Editor of HispanicOnline.com will be interviewed about Speedy on Fox News Channel tomorrow (Thursday, March 28) morning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time.


-Jon

[Maxie Zeus]

opinionjournal.com (the web-based editorial site of the Wall Street Journal) has picked this up, and links to both the Hispaniconline and FoxNews bits (it's the last item on today's Best of the Web (http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=105001828) feature. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else takes it from here.

[Nelson]

Hey gang, think about this one for a second...Last year it was Bugs Bunny that made news now this year it's Speedy Gonzales in the headlines..It looks like every year a Looney Tunes character will be in the news for some controversy. :p

[Matthew Hunter]

Well, for now I have set up my own petition, and I urge all of you to sign it. Just click below:
http://www.petitiononline.com/speedy/petition.html
-Matthew

[Daffyfan2002]

Wow, Matthew. It looks like we were the first two people to sign. I hope this works.

[Fireswarm]

I am Hispanic I don't see why Speedy should be banned. He is popular in Mexico, a local Mexican television station Televisa usually shows the Speedy vs. Daffy usually on Sundays.

[Jon Cooke]

So, did anybody catch the interview with the Hispanic Online woman this morning on FOX News.

It didn't cover anything we didn't already know. And, no, the TTTP wasn't mentioned. :p

But, I think you guys will LOVE this quote from Cartoon Network's Laurie Goldberg (http://looney.toonzone.net/picts/foxnews-speedy.jpg).


-Jon

[ZorBrak]

this is the kind of thing that makes me hate Warner so, while I love many of their shows I despise their recent idiocy to no end. Their Polictical Correctness, endless Liberal praising and extreme right wing actions are the culprets. Now more than ever I would like to say "WARNER YOU SUCK". -
-Your DVDs suck, your censorship and edits suck, your special editions in the already sucky cardboard DVDs? they suck too.
-It sucks that you had to put liberal crap in Batman Beyond by saying "clinton was the fun one" and it sucks that you use the fan's characters for your propaganda.
-It sucks that you are so stupid, and it sucks that you own DC.
-It sucks that you neglect your fans, as it sucks that you ruined the Batman films.
-It sucks that your so freaking obssesed with Scooby, when in reality no one like him.
-It sucks that you seem to like "best of" sets when if you had a brain you would see that season sets are more profitable and DON'T hurt syndication.
-...becuase I hate you that much, who the head honcos are I hope you all are replaced because you are morons and in a span of several shrot years have destroyed the once cool "WB".

Political correctness is BS that only helps to perpetuate more BS.

[rodney]

They're not as bad as Di$ney, who won't even license comic books using their classic characters in the US because they don't feel there's enough money involved.

[Joe Tully]

I appreciate that lady from hispaniconline.com trying to help out, but boy she didn't do so well during that interview! She didn't really know what to say at some points. The reporter had to help her out quite a bit. I think that they should have interviewed Matthew or Jon instead! :p

[rodney]

I didn't see the piece, but we really need a spokesperson who knows the ins and outs of the historical importance of these shorts.

[Brian Cruz]

I've posted a RealVideo copy of the interview on the Toon Zone News page.

[rodney]

The more I think about this, the more apparent it becomes that CN will do whatever they want. I wonder if any of these efforts will do any good.

It's become obvious that CN doesn't care about the classic cartoon fan, and as a result, I personally don't care about CN. I've got my cartoon collection, which thanks to people on this board is growing by leaps and bounds. I've become self sufficent not needing any sort of broadcast TV to see the 'toons I want to see.

[Joe Tully]

Originally posted by rodney
The more I think about this, the more apparent it becomes that CN will do whatever they want.

Which is why we have to make them want to bring back Speedy!!! :D

Seriously, they will do whatever they want to, but if they have enough pressure put on them to bring him back and have enough reason to believe that they won't get their butts sued for airing cartoons featuring an innocent little Mexican mouse, then they'll air the cartoons again. Really, now that Turner's out of there (more or less) they should consider fixing his errors, which I doubt is something they've even considered so far.

[Vdubdavid]

What really got me going during that interview was that quote from Cartoon Network! Well, if they would just scale back Scooby and the Cartoon Cartoons they would have enough room for black-and-white Popeye, Speedy, and even "Goober and the Ghostchasers" (whatever THAT show was)!

[Maxie Zeus]

Sigh. Let's think about the logic here.

Goldberg is basically implying that if CN gives in to fan demands on Speedy, then they will have to give in on fan demands on Goober, or any similar absurdity.

Well, similarly, if they give in on PC demands about Speedy (or about "Coal Black") won't that mean they have to give in to PC demands about Porky's stutter, or any similar absurdity? (Who is/was that guy on one of the newsgroups always complaining about Porky?)

Ergo, Goldberg is either intellectually inconsistent because she gives in readily to one set of demands but not the other. Or she thinks CN is obliged to give far more weight to the demands of a group with a political grievance than it does to fans of the medium.

I'm not sure which is more disheartening.

[ZorBrak]

Goldberg is a moron and I would not mind seeing her lose her job.

[Matthew Hunter]

Well, though you may be a bit extreme, ZorBrak, I agree with you mostly. I don't think Warner itself has this view of Speedy...they still make Speedy merchandise. this appears to be strictly a Cartoon Network thing, has been for a long time.Though I know Laurie Goldberg may have been nice to us here at TZ in the past, I think we need to send her my petition too if we can find her email or snail mail address. We don't have to be nice to her. In fact, I think by her spouting that kind of stuff, it really undermines what this site and other Toon Zone sites do, promote a variety of animation, classic and new. We need to remember that the classics, while not necessarily superior in terms of popularity, deserve a certain reverence and respect towards them. I think we need to use all our connections we have with Cartoon Network and mention this issue anytime we do business with them, because the more they realize their errors, the more they'll listen.

[Jimmy Kustes]

Originally posted by rodney
They're not as bad as Di$ney, who won't even license comic books using their classic characters in the US because they don't feel there's enough money involved.

Sorta related story, since I am a Kentucky cartoonist I am interested in this. A cartoonist, that worked on "Captain Kentucky" a short-lived comic in my local paper, now is a legend for making Uncle Scrooge Comic Books. Only he is famous in Finland (or some place in Europe), cause that is where the books are published. They love him there! :yawn:

[rodney]

As well as they should. Don Rosa's work is amazing, and he's a super nice guy too.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming........

[sam_milton]

[Hey guys, I just joined this forum. I am a big fan of the classic Looney Tunes cartoons. I joined after hearing Rush Limbaugh talking about Speedy on his show the other day. I listen to Rush every day and was thrilled to hear him taking our side on this issue. Rush has been on a rant lately about the Native American students who named their intramural team "The Fightin' Whities" and are now having thousands of requests for t-shirts from white people. I e-mailed him, thanking him for his Speedy stance and telling him about "Bugs' Censored Twelve" and the June Bugs fiasco. If Rush reads my e-mail (he gets thousand per day) and we can enlist his support, we can reach his huge audience (20 million mostly anti-PC people). So even if you are a liberal, or just dislike Rush, that's OK, but he could give us a lot of power for advancing the preservation of this part of American culture.

[Argus Sventon]

I must have been out of the loop for a while. My modem got fried, Tuesday morning, and it's got a "pacemaker" until I get a new one.

[AngelStar]

Originally posted by Fireswarm
I am Hispanic I don't see why Speedy should be banned. He is popular in Mexico, a local Mexican television station Televisa usually shows the Speedy vs. Daffy usually on Sundays.


I agree, I'm hispanic too but sadly the whole deal with CN is now werid. Tom and Jerry cartoons that show smoke/tar/etc and make a black person face is now banned and been edited from all carttons. PLus any that make a Asian face too.

But don't forget, the Taco BEll dog was banned too and Mexicans are fighting to get rid of Taco bell.

Which in a way I do side with them Taco Bell's food is an insult to the Mexican food and Tx Mex is different too, so I'm not sure what to say on that