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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Mike Luckovich

Aired October 27, 2002 - 08:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, we're going to talk about this. Every couple of weeks, a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist drops by to visit us, right? Well, we're lucky to have Mr. Mike Luckovich. He is here this morning, whose sharp pen and sharp wit enlivened the editorial pages of "The Atlanta Journal- Constitution." Good morning, Mike.
MIKE LUCKOVICH, POLITICAL CARTOONIST, ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Good morning to both of you.

NEVILLE: Dapper Dan this morning I'm going to call you.

LUCKOVICH: Dapper Dan. All right. That would be perfect. That would be perfect.

RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: You know, you must have been getting writer's cramp from this year, but just in the last, I would say, two months, so much going on in the news and in the world.

LUCKOVICH: Right, right. Yeah, no, it's been interesting. And, of course, we had the sniper stuff going on, and that was, as you all know, that was just really intense.

NEVILLE: Absolutely.

LUCKOVICH: And I noticed that the -- some of the cable networks, of course not CNN, but many of the cable networks were going back repeatedly to Chief Moose.

SAN MIGUEL: Yes.

LUCKOVICH: And often Moose didn't have that much to say. So I did this cartoon. I've got a reporter is standing next to Moose and he's saying, "there you have it. Chief Moose is brushing. Back to you with an update when he flosses."

SAN MIGUEL: I was wondering when you were going to get -- and editorial cartoonists were going to get around to this, because it was such a -- you know, trying to get any information out there at all and making each update seem momentous, and he would come out and say, we can't say anything more about this. We don't want to say anything more to compromise the investigation.

And it then becomes a time of filling air time.

LUCKOVICH: Right. And he'd come out and he'd be ironing or eating breakfast and you guys would be covering it.

NEVILLE: But he kept coming out.

LUCKOVICH: I know. I know. He did come out.

SAN MIGUEL: No, that's facing the media.

LUCKOVICH: That's true.

Now, the next cartoon is drawn by a guy named Matt Davies (ph), who is a great New York cartoonist. And I really like this cartoon, because when the snipers sent that letter and said "your children are not safe," Matt Davies (ph) took that line and he connected it to the Supreme Court. And in the bubble, he's saying it's the Supreme Court's juvenile death penalty ruling. So that was something last week, and I thought that was a very good cartoon.

SAN MIGUEL: OK.

LUCKOVICH: Now, one of the interesting things last week was there was a NRA convention, and they had Charlton Heston out front doing his famous -- with the rifle, they'll have to pry this out of my cold, dead hands.

SAN MIGUEL: Exactly.

LUCKOVICH: Now, these folks are not good at public relations, because why would you be doing that when there's a sniper loose?

NEVILLE: Exactly.

SAN MIGUEL: You know, in the "Bowling for Columbine" movie, that is brought up as well because of the visit by the NRA to Denver in the weeks after Columbine, and also going to Detroit after a child killed another child in a school in Flint, Michigan. And Michael Moore, the filmmaker, did ask Heston about that and asked him if he would apologize for that. And then, but at that point Heston in the film just gets up and walks away from the interview.

LUCKOVICH: Oh, yes, right.

SAN MIGUEL: Well, you know, but I see your point here, the idea of the timing.

LUCKOVICH: Well, right. And so in this particular cartoon, I've got him giving his famous line, "they'll have to pry this from my cold, dead hands." And then he's thinking to himself, "now that the alleged sniper is captured, I can use that line outside again."

SAN MIGUEL: Exactly. This is an issue of timing, and that's what -- there will be some debate on that as well with the NRA.

LUCKOVICH: Right. And, also, this week, we see Bush -- I don't think he is in the White House too much right now because he's trying to get in these last-minute campaign appearances. So I did this cartoon, if we could show that. It's Air Force One, and you see he is on a little swing above, and there's "Vote Bob for Congress," and an aide is saying to Bob, he's saying, "he must have a full slate of last-minute campaign appearances because he's just kind of flying on through."

SAN MIGUEL: Exactly. I know that, also, the Democrats have been saying, you know, he is not in the White House running the country, he's making all these campaign appearances, but hasn't Tom Daschle also been out on the campaign trail?

LUCKOVICH: Oh, yes.

SAN MIGUEL: I mean, I'm just saying in the sense of equal time here the Democrats themselves have some very close races.

LUCKOVICH: Oh, right. And Bush is the draw for the Republicans. So he should be doing that.

SAN MIGUEL: Exactly.

NEVILLE: Hey, Mike, I was just going to ask you quickly, before you go to the next cartoon, just I'm always curious as to how people like you can find the humor and irony and satire in such a tragic situation.

LUCKOVICH: Well, you know, it's tough at times, but it's normally -- for instance, with the sniper, with the sniper attacks, that was just horrendous and terrible. But it's kind of later on when there are some humorous aspects, side aspects of the story that I will focus on. I did earlier on I did cartoons on the sniper that weren't funny at all. And so it just kind of -- you kind of have to be sensitive to the tone.

NEVILLE: Absolutely.

LUCKOVICH: And after 9/11, it took me weeks and weeks before I did a funny cartoon. So it -- you really have to just be sensitive to that.

SAN MIGUEL: Use your judgment and take into account the timing of the situations.

LUCKOVICH: Right, right.

Another kind of interesting thing right now is that Jeb Bush is in a -- is in a really tight race in Florida. And so this is a two- panel cartoon. In the first panel, you see someone in a Florida drug rehab is saying, "whatever happens I'm going to stick by you." And then in the second panel, you see Jeb is telling Noelle Bush, "thanks, honey." She's offering her support.

NEVILLE: Exactly. The other way around.

SAN MIGUEL: The situation is reversed here.

LUCKOVICH: In the cartoon business, we call that a switcheroo.

NEVILLE: Switcheroo. A fancy word there.

(CROSSTALK)

LUCKOVICH: Right. Now, what's fun is during the holiday season, you have -- you can use Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's just great, because there are just so many different symbols that you can play around with. And so I believe in this next cartoon, yes, this is a Halloween cartoon, and I've got three little kids at the door and a guy is saying, "it's a resolution demanding unfettered access to our candy corn."

NEVILLE: That's great.

SAN MIGUEL: Taking the U.N.-Iraq situation and bringing it down to the neighborhood level.

LUCKOVICH: Exactly right.

SAN MIGUEL: Not bad.

NEVILLE: I think I'd be asking for unfettered access to black jelly beans.

(CROSSTALK)

LUCKOVICH: You know, it's amazing what cartoonists do. I had a discussion with another cartoonist. What is a funny kind of name for a candy, and we decided that candy corn would be the appropriate thing to put in. So, you know...

SAN MIGUEL: An unscientific poll with a fellow editorial cartoonist.

LUCKOVICH: Right. Right. Now, finally, one topic that's been in the news is the travails of Martha Stewart.

And so I did this one. You see, she's been tarred and feathered and she is saying, "add a variety of feathers for a truly festive look."

SAN MIGUEL: I'm certain this is not the first Martha Stewart cartoon that you or any of your fellow cartoonists have done.

LUCKOVICH: You know, I think I've probably done 80 or 90 because she's just been so much fun and it's been such a long running drama. You know, actually, I think that she should hire Johnnie Cochran, because then he could say, you know, if the cooking mitt doesn't fit, we must acquit.

SAN MIGUEL: We knew that that was coming. And even if she wasn't in this kind of trouble, you probably would have made her a target anyway. She kind of lends herself to that.

LUCKOVICH: Well, she does. And it's bad for her, but fun for cartoonists, I guess.

SAN MIGUEL: There you go. And that is your life's blood right there.

NEVILLE: Mike, you look like you are the canary (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(CROSSTALK)

LUCKOVICH: Well, I've got a great job. I love doing this every day.

SAN MIGUEL: All right.

LUCKOVICH: It's fun.

SAN MIGUEL: And the Pulitzer committee thought so as well because they gave you the Pulitzer Prize. We do thank you for joining us.

LUCKOVICH: Thank you so much.

SAN MIGUEL: With "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 27, 2002 - 08:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, we're going to talk about this. Every couple of weeks, a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist drops by to visit us, right? Well, we're lucky to have Mr. Mike Luckovich. He is here this morning, whose sharp pen and sharp wit enlivened the editorial pages of "The Atlanta Journal- Constitution." Good morning, Mike.
MIKE LUCKOVICH, POLITICAL CARTOONIST, ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Good morning to both of you.

NEVILLE: Dapper Dan this morning I'm going to call you.

LUCKOVICH: Dapper Dan. All right. That would be perfect. That would be perfect.

RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: You know, you must have been getting writer's cramp from this year, but just in the last, I would say, two months, so much going on in the news and in the world.

LUCKOVICH: Right, right. Yeah, no, it's been interesting. And, of course, we had the sniper stuff going on, and that was, as you all know, that was just really intense.

NEVILLE: Absolutely.

LUCKOVICH: And I noticed that the -- some of the cable networks, of course not CNN, but many of the cable networks were going back repeatedly to Chief Moose.

SAN MIGUEL: Yes.

LUCKOVICH: And often Moose didn't have that much to say. So I did this cartoon. I've got a reporter is standing next to Moose and he's saying, "there you have it. Chief Moose is brushing. Back to you with an update when he flosses."

SAN MIGUEL: I was wondering when you were going to get -- and editorial cartoonists were going to get around to this, because it was such a -- you know, trying to get any information out there at all and making each update seem momentous, and he would come out and say, we can't say anything more about this. We don't want to say anything more to compromise the investigation.

And it then becomes a time of filling air time.

LUCKOVICH: Right. And he'd come out and he'd be ironing or eating breakfast and you guys would be covering it.

NEVILLE: But he kept coming out.

LUCKOVICH: I know. I know. He did come out.

SAN MIGUEL: No, that's facing the media.

LUCKOVICH: That's true.

Now, the next cartoon is drawn by a guy named Matt Davies (ph), who is a great New York cartoonist. And I really like this cartoon, because when the snipers sent that letter and said "your children are not safe," Matt Davies (ph) took that line and he connected it to the Supreme Court. And in the bubble, he's saying it's the Supreme Court's juvenile death penalty ruling. So that was something last week, and I thought that was a very good cartoon.

SAN MIGUEL: OK.

LUCKOVICH: Now, one of the interesting things last week was there was a NRA convention, and they had Charlton Heston out front doing his famous -- with the rifle, they'll have to pry this out of my cold, dead hands.

SAN MIGUEL: Exactly.

LUCKOVICH: Now, these folks are not good at public relations, because why would you be doing that when there's a sniper loose?

NEVILLE: Exactly.

SAN MIGUEL: You know, in the "Bowling for Columbine" movie, that is brought up as well because of the visit by the NRA to Denver in the weeks after Columbine, and also going to Detroit after a child killed another child in a school in Flint, Michigan. And Michael Moore, the filmmaker, did ask Heston about that and asked him if he would apologize for that. And then, but at that point Heston in the film just gets up and walks away from the interview.

LUCKOVICH: Oh, yes, right.

SAN MIGUEL: Well, you know, but I see your point here, the idea of the timing.

LUCKOVICH: Well, right. And so in this particular cartoon, I've got him giving his famous line, "they'll have to pry this from my cold, dead hands." And then he's thinking to himself, "now that the alleged sniper is captured, I can use that line outside again."

SAN MIGUEL: Exactly. This is an issue of timing, and that's what -- there will be some debate on that as well with the NRA.

LUCKOVICH: Right. And, also, this week, we see Bush -- I don't think he is in the White House too much right now because he's trying to get in these last-minute campaign appearances. So I did this cartoon, if we could show that. It's Air Force One, and you see he is on a little swing above, and there's "Vote Bob for Congress," and an aide is saying to Bob, he's saying, "he must have a full slate of last-minute campaign appearances because he's just kind of flying on through."

SAN MIGUEL: Exactly. I know that, also, the Democrats have been saying, you know, he is not in the White House running the country, he's making all these campaign appearances, but hasn't Tom Daschle also been out on the campaign trail?

LUCKOVICH: Oh, yes.

SAN MIGUEL: I mean, I'm just saying in the sense of equal time here the Democrats themselves have some very close races.

LUCKOVICH: Oh, right. And Bush is the draw for the Republicans. So he should be doing that.

SAN MIGUEL: Exactly.

NEVILLE: Hey, Mike, I was just going to ask you quickly, before you go to the next cartoon, just I'm always curious as to how people like you can find the humor and irony and satire in such a tragic situation.

LUCKOVICH: Well, you know, it's tough at times, but it's normally -- for instance, with the sniper, with the sniper attacks, that was just horrendous and terrible. But it's kind of later on when there are some humorous aspects, side aspects of the story that I will focus on. I did earlier on I did cartoons on the sniper that weren't funny at all. And so it just kind of -- you kind of have to be sensitive to the tone.

NEVILLE: Absolutely.

LUCKOVICH: And after 9/11, it took me weeks and weeks before I did a funny cartoon. So it -- you really have to just be sensitive to that.

SAN MIGUEL: Use your judgment and take into account the timing of the situations.

LUCKOVICH: Right, right.

Another kind of interesting thing right now is that Jeb Bush is in a -- is in a really tight race in Florida. And so this is a two- panel cartoon. In the first panel, you see someone in a Florida drug rehab is saying, "whatever happens I'm going to stick by you." And then in the second panel, you see Jeb is telling Noelle Bush, "thanks, honey." She's offering her support.

NEVILLE: Exactly. The other way around.

SAN MIGUEL: The situation is reversed here.

LUCKOVICH: In the cartoon business, we call that a switcheroo.

NEVILLE: Switcheroo. A fancy word there.

(CROSSTALK)

LUCKOVICH: Right. Now, what's fun is during the holiday season, you have -- you can use Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's just great, because there are just so many different symbols that you can play around with. And so I believe in this next cartoon, yes, this is a Halloween cartoon, and I've got three little kids at the door and a guy is saying, "it's a resolution demanding unfettered access to our candy corn."

NEVILLE: That's great.

SAN MIGUEL: Taking the U.N.-Iraq situation and bringing it down to the neighborhood level.

LUCKOVICH: Exactly right.

SAN MIGUEL: Not bad.

NEVILLE: I think I'd be asking for unfettered access to black jelly beans.

(CROSSTALK)

LUCKOVICH: You know, it's amazing what cartoonists do. I had a discussion with another cartoonist. What is a funny kind of name for a candy, and we decided that candy corn would be the appropriate thing to put in. So, you know...

SAN MIGUEL: An unscientific poll with a fellow editorial cartoonist.

LUCKOVICH: Right. Right. Now, finally, one topic that's been in the news is the travails of Martha Stewart.

And so I did this one. You see, she's been tarred and feathered and she is saying, "add a variety of feathers for a truly festive look."

SAN MIGUEL: I'm certain this is not the first Martha Stewart cartoon that you or any of your fellow cartoonists have done.

LUCKOVICH: You know, I think I've probably done 80 or 90 because she's just been so much fun and it's been such a long running drama. You know, actually, I think that she should hire Johnnie Cochran, because then he could say, you know, if the cooking mitt doesn't fit, we must acquit.

SAN MIGUEL: We knew that that was coming. And even if she wasn't in this kind of trouble, you probably would have made her a target anyway. She kind of lends herself to that.

LUCKOVICH: Well, she does. And it's bad for her, but fun for cartoonists, I guess.

SAN MIGUEL: There you go. And that is your life's blood right there.

NEVILLE: Mike, you look like you are the canary (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(CROSSTALK)

LUCKOVICH: Well, I've got a great job. I love doing this every day.

SAN MIGUEL: All right.

LUCKOVICH: It's fun.

SAN MIGUEL: And the Pulitzer committee thought so as well because they gave you the Pulitzer Prize. We do thank you for joining us.

LUCKOVICH: Thank you so much.

SAN MIGUEL: With "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com