If you somehow missed it, The Australian was in hot water on Thursday after publishing a particularly controversial cartoon by in-house artist Bill Leak. The image depicted an Aboriginal father with a beer can being asked to teach his son a lesson about personal responsibility – and not remembering his name.
Key figures in the indigenous community have perceived it as an attack that perpetuates a vicious stereotype, especially being published on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day. Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency chief executive Muriel Bamblett told 774 ABC Melbourne that indigenous people" feel quite oppressed when these things happen”.
The Australian's editor-in-chief Paul Whittaker decided to defend the cartoon, saying that the paper was "proud of its long-standing and detailed contribution to our national debate over the crucial issues in Indigenous affairs". He added that it was simply a way of bringing the current controversy over juvenile detentions to the forefront of the nation’s mind – but social media wasn’t so sure.
Naturally, Bill Leak chose not to apologise for his actions today, but instead took the time to explain away any possible offense taken, pinning it down to people being unable to handle the truth. He described the root of the problem as “Chronic Truth Aversion Disorder”.
“The reactions of people in an advanced stage of the condition to anything that so much as hints at the truth, while utterly irrational, are also so hostile that anyone inclined to speak the truth understandably becomes afraid to do so,” he said in his statement.
Leak added that the reason he published the cartoon was the fact that he felt that those upset by footage of the children from Don Dale Youth Correction should “look at the homes they came from” – and then they might understand why so many of them finished up there.
If we can take anything positive from this, at least we can officially add Leak to the pile of media commentators that are incapable of understanding how their output could possibly be offensive and commence ignoring him.
