Antis Rewrite History

Iconic Photos
The Case of Missing Cigarettes
As America’s anger thermostats overheats on Mark Twain censorship, Iconic Photos looks back at a visual issue that regularly graces our semi-annual, revisionist political correctness hissy fits: cigarette censorship in photos.
The French, for all their enthusiastic fume-making, seems to be the worse offenders. Not even presidents or philosophes escape the firm hand of their cigarette censors, whose efforts are often sophomoric and inexplicable: Jacques Tati’s much-loved character, Monsieur Hulot, someone so iconic that even his silhouette was instantly recognizable, was depicted as gnawing on a papier-mache windmill instead (how did they come up with this idea?!). This actually reminds me of a scene in Thank You For Smoking where an American senator attempts to digitally remove cigarettes from classic films. The scene was not in the original novel, but its author Christopher Buckley would have agreed; Buckley once called a similar practice, “tampering with cultural DNA”.
“The communists used to airbrush inconvenient persons from photographs. Americans are airbrushing signs of inconvenient sins.” However, it is not just Americans; everyone seems to be doing it these days. Soon, we will be learning sanitized versions of history, where FDR, Sigmund Freud or Humphrey Bogart never smoked, reading books where Sherlock Holmes didn’t rely on cocaine and tobacco, and watching movies where protagonists are allowed to blow others’ heads off but not allowed to light up.”
Read More and see the photos,

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Op-ed: Children do not need us to artificially sanitize the world

December 25, 2012
By Anita Voelker
The holiday book-buying season is upon us and for those who have not heard, Canadian independent publisher Pamela McColl has updated Clement Moore’s 1823 poem, “ ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” by deleting two lines regarding Santa’s pipe and its ubiquitous cloud of smoke.

McColl, an anti-smoking activist, hopes her version of the poem will deter children from smoking. Although the recent publication of this bowdlerized version of “ ‘Twas the Night before Christmas” has become fodder for comedians, I am not amused.
This event resurrected an incident that occurred as one of my Messiah College student-teachers read “The Tale of Despereaux” by Kate DiCamillo to her fourth-graders.
As she shared the scene where a father, cigarette in his clamped mouth, sells his daughter, she looked up to find 24 pairs of horrified eyes upon her. She paused, recognizing this was troubling.

Wisely, she created time for conversation. She assumed that the children were disturbed by the selling of a child. But, in whispered unison, the children warned their young student-teacher that the word “cigarette” is forbidden at their school.

They insisted that she replace the word “cigarette” with “chicken.” Strikingly, a man with a chicken in his mouth made a strange substitution, but the children were surprisingly satisfied and seemingly unfazed that a child was being sold by her father … as long as he was not smoking.

I am not an advocate of smoking, nor am I receiving a kickback from the tobacco industry, but I grieve the loss of this small six inch paper-wrapped bundle of nicotine. Not for what it was, but for what it represented.?
I anguish over what other images also will be erased. What other truths discarded?

To those who care deeply about children, I offer an alternative: Rather than eliminating images or words that offend, advance the notion of information literacy alongside critical literacy for children.
The American Library Association uses the term information literacy to describe a set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze and use information. Shenk, an emeritus professor from Columbia University, warns that we enter dangerous territory when members of society, including children, are not equipped with the ability to use information literacy.

Much like information literacy, critical literacy is a stance that enables readers to consider text and images, not simply at face value, but through historical, cultural and political lenses.?
According to Patrick Shannon, professor of education at Penn State University, critical literacy encouraged readers to use the question “Why are things the way they are?” as a mediating tool.

Imagine what would be gained if parents discussed why things are “the way they are” as they read a book together. In the case of Moore’s poem, parents could locate the 1823 copyright date and share how medical research about smoking occurred well after the poem was published. My hunch is that many 21st century preschool children have viewed images of their great-grandfathers, great-grandmothers or other relatives smoking cigarettes or pipes inside the yellowed pages of old photograph albums.

I would hope that the children would not consider their ancestors to be evil or dim-witted because of a cigarette or pipe. But rather I hope children will be apprenticed in how to situate an image or text within the historical and cultural context of the times.

I believe in children and their ability to think critically. I also recognize that some might consider my reaction to one deleted pipe and wreath of smoke as unnecessarily radical.

But I cringe at the possibility of children living in an unreal utopian world where images that do not fit the current culture are erased. Children do not need us to artificially sanitize the world. Quite frankly, we cannot.

However, children do need us. There is no doubt about that. They need us to show them the past, even if it was shrouded in smoke.
Then we can teach them how to find perspective. In doing so, we offer our children a much more useful gift: the ability to read and think critically. In the process, they might create their own, better future.

Anita Voelker is an associate professor of education at Messiah College.

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Winston Churchill’s cigar airbrushed from picture
15 Jun 2010
By Nick Collins
A photograph of Winston Churchill giving his victory salute has been airbrushed to remove his signature cigar.
In the well-known original image, Churchill makes a “V” shaped symbol with his fingers – while gripping a cigar in the corner of his mouth.
But in a reproduction of the picture, hanging over the main entrance to a London museum celebrating the wartime leader, he has been made into a non-smoker through the use of image-altering techniques.
It is unclear who is responsible for doctoring the photograph, with the museum – The Winston Churchill’s Britain at War Experience – claiming not to have noticed the cigar was missing.
John Welsh, manager of the museum, admitted he was shocked to learn of the alteration, but declined to reveal who was responsible for the display and for enlarging the image.
He said: “We’ve got all sorts of images in the museum, some with cigars and some without. We’ve even got wartime adverts for cigarettes in the lift down to the air-raid shelter, so we wouldn’t have asked for there to be no cigar.”
Don Robinson, who owned the museum before passing it to a charitable trust 20 years ago, added: “If we’d known we would have said: ‘No, it stays as it is.’ Everything we do we try to do accurately and the cigar symbolises Churchill.”
The alteration of the original image, taken in 1948 during the opening of a new military headquarters, was noticed by David McAdam, a visitor to the museum.
He told the Daily Mail: “I pointed out this crude alteration to a museum steward who said she hadn’t noticed the change before, nor had anyone else pointed it out.
“So much for the notion that only communist tyrants airbrushed history.”
Alan Packwood, of the Churchill Archives Centre, said he was not aware of any previous case where Churchill’s cigar had been digitally removed from a picture.

Antis Rewrite History

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To The Smoker’s Club, Inc.,
I got an email a couple of weeks back and can’t remember who from but it was linked to a site Reptile Books , I think, with a special link at that site to write a letter to HarperCollins protesting the airbrushing of Mr. Hurds’ cigarette. I sent a letter and below this article is the answer I got back. Pretty lame excuse for censorship.

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Unnecessary erasures
November 21, 2005

CLEMENT HURD should get to keep his cigarette. Hurd, the illustrator of the famous children’s book ”Goodnight Moon,” died in 1988. But for years, copies of the book have featured a photograph of him with a big smile and a cigarette between two fingers. In the photograph, the cigarette is as casual a part of Hurd as the watch on his wrist.

But when publisher HarperCollins was preparing for the 60th anniversary of ”Goodnight Moon,” which will be in 2007, officials decided that the cigarette had to go. With permission from Hurd’s son, the cigarette was digitally removed for the printing of 70,000 copies. A spokeswoman said the cigarette would send the wrong message to children and did not have to be there.

It’s an understandable but unfortunate mistake. Hurd’s son told The New York Times he felt pushed into approving the change. Children’s booksellers are objecting. Some parents find the erasure silly. And it seems as if most readers haven’t noticed the cigarette or haven’t cared if they did.

Anyone who does notice has easy recourse. Adults can spot the cigarette as an artifact from a receding culture. And they can tell children that once upon a time people thought it was OK and even glamorous to smoke cigarettes — but now that’s a medically refuted fairy tale.

The book itself is charming and timeless, but also a piece of history. It comes from a time when cigarettes and ashtrays were ordinary living room accessories. The story itself features an old-fashioned, land-line telephone. And there’s nary a beeping, blinking electronic toy in sight. This is the allure of literature: It’s an attic full of forgotten appliances, professions, furniture, and hairstyles.

Even the youngest children should be exposed to this context. And adults should build the habit of refusing to erase history, from big events to small details. Otherwise too much is vulnerable. Facts are changed to protect children. Information that should be public is branded classified. Air-brushing becomes acceptable. Not knowing grows into a virtue, with unspoken Orwellian consequences.

Where would the alterations stop? Would Pippi Longstocking have to have a stay-at-home stepmom? Today, if there were a plucky, 9-year-old girl living alone in an old house, she would quickly be swept up by the Department of Social Services. Should books featuring Harriet the Spy, Peter Pan, and the Cat in the Hat all include stern warnings about the illegalities of trespassing?

No. Best to leave children’s literature as is, reflecting a world that is typically and sometimes destructively imperfect. Sanitize books, and children will likely only wonder why adults are bent on denying the obvious.

Read

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This is the letter I sent? Nov. 20th to Maria Modgno at HarperCollins…….
To Whom it May Concern,
?
I have just read about your action to censor and re-write history by airbrushing a photo of Clement Hurd , holding a cigarette, to depict the illustrator not smoking! As a company that depends on the protection of free speech to exist, shame on you! I can only guess that you have been pressured to take this action by an anti-smoking group, most likely Tobacco Free Kids. Do you honestly believe that your capitulation will be your last? If this is allowed, there is a long line of other groups with their own demands. Good luck in maintaining your first amendment rights! I will not ask nor demand that you restore the original photo, I will not violate your right to free speech. What I will object to is your Orwellian action to change an historical fact to promote another’s agenda and your censoring of a writers’ work. HarperCollins has now become a “tool” for propaganda. Kate Morgan Jackson , quoted in a news article states ” One of our responsibilities, is to make sure we are publishing the right way throughout the ages and making it healthy for every generation”. With every generation that perception can and will change so that the recent publication will no longer show the original. With that , it would no longer be necessary to have any standards in publications, such as truth in reporting or original writings accurately published. This sort of action should? not happen in a free country, this is expected in a country under a dictatorship.

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This was her reply…….
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Goodnight Moon is an enduring children’s classic because of its timeless and lasting images. HarperCollins is proud of our dedication to ensure that this and other beloved children’s books never fall out of print due to neglect.? As you know, as part of this process, we recently retouched the jacket photograph of Clement Hurd because we were concerned that the cigarette could send a potentially harmful message about smoking to children – a concern that did not exist many years ago when the photo was first used.? We understand that this change has caused some concern, and we have replaced this photo with a new, unaltered picture of Mr. Hurd that does not include a cigarette. This picture is now included on our most recent reprint of Goodnight Moon.? We have been working closely with Thacher Hurd and the Estate of Margaret Wise Brown throughout this process to ensure it is handled with care and respect.

Thank you for your support of Goodnight Moon. This book truly is a national treasure, and we always appreciate your valuable feedback about our titles.

Maria Modugno
Vice President & Editorial Director
HarperCollins Children’s Books
1350 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019

This website is temporary, and has been designed solely for the sake of protesting the recent decision by Harper Collins Publishers to censor Goodnight Moon , one of America’s national literary treasures, and far and away the best-selling book in the history of children’s literature.

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By Louis Bayard
November 27, 2005

“Goodnight Moon,” the children’s classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke-free. In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly 60 years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator, to remove a cigarette from his hand. . . .

“It is potentially a harmful message to very young kids,” [Kate] Jackson [editor in chief of HarperCollins Children’s Books] said, “and it doesn’t need to be there.”

— News item,
the New York Times,
Nov. 17, 2005

In the great green room there was . . .

A cordless telephone

And a red balloon, non-helium and securely tethered out of toddler reach

And a picture of the cow jumping over the moon, with a warning label never to try this with cattle or indeed any animals without parental supervision

And there were three little bears, roaming freely in their native habitat, secure in their endangered-species status

And two little neutered kittens

And a pair of mittens, purchased from a Cambodian collective

And a little toyhouse with all potential choking hazards fastened in place by six-inch bolts

And a young and humanely captured mouse

Goodnight room, which is more than many Burkina Faso children have

Goodnight moon and all moon-related goddesses

A special shout-out to persons of color, the differently abled and victims of tobacco-company propaganda

Goodnight solar-powered clocks

And goodnight sustainably manufactured hemp socks

Goodnight synthetic tortoise shell comb and brush

Goodnight anybody who has ever been made to feel like a “nobody” by a rigidly patriarchal society

Goodnight organic whole-grain GMO-free oatmeal mush

And goodnight to the lady of mature years seeking an environment conducive to thought

Goodnight stars, which remind us that we are not alone in this cosmos and must henceforth redouble our stewardship efforts

Goodnight air, which we have done so much to pollute with our inhuman sport utility vehicles and our Weber grills

Goodnight all noises in the immediate vicinity . . .

. . . with the exception of the white-noise machine, the Haydn concerto loop, and the four-gallon cool-mist humidifier with the evaporative wick filter that was changed only last weekend

Goodnight to anybody whose feelings might have been injured by not being included above.

Author’s e-mail: dratnip@aol.com
Lou Bayard, a Washington writer, carefully disinfects every book he reads to his children.

Date: December 1, 2005 3:19:42 PM EST
To: maria.modugno@harpercollins.com
Cc: kate.jackson@harpercollins.com
Subject: Keep the Clement Hurd picture as is

Tampering with the truth is something I am not comfortable with.

I recently heard an NPR news program on China concerning how the reign of Mao is not described in full in school textbooks and there is a growing neo- Mao movement among the Chinese youth.

IMO, tampering with this picture may be mild in comparison to that, but seems to stem from a similar mindset of “selective” history to keep truth “from the children”.

By KAREN KARBO
Published: December 4, 2005
“Goodnight Moon,” the children’s classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke free. In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly 60 years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator, to remove a cigarette from his hand. HarperCollins said it made the change to avoid the appearance of encouraging smoking.
– The New York Times, Nov. 17

Portland, Ore.

EXCELLENT start, HarperCollins, but why stop there? The text of “Goodnight Moon” itself is laden with messages that are potentially harmful to our youngest readers. At a minimum, these changes should be made:

A. Huge gilt picture frames have no place in the nursery, especially those that are not properly secured. Should these three little bears sitting on chairs crash down during the night, Bunny risks suffering massive head trauma. Suggested change: digitally replace with piece of lightweight non-toxic fiber art.

B. The blue stripes are adorable, but the reader has no way of knowing whether Bunny’s pj’s meet current flammability standards. Suggested change: digitally alter to include visible “flame resistant” label, in accordance with recommendations made by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Digitally removing pj’s is not an option.

C. Tell me this rug is not made of the skin of a Siberian tiger. Suggested change: Digitally remove to avoid appearance of condoning hunting of planet’s endangered species.

D. How long has this bowl full of mush been sitting here? A single drop of sour milk contains more than 50 million potentially fatal bacteria. At the very least Bunny is in danger of contracting irritable bowel syndrome. Not to mention mush is low in fiber. Suggested change: Digitally remove.

E. Balloons cause more choking deaths among 3- to 6-year-olds than any other toy. Suggested change: Digitally remove.

F. Given proximity and brightness of stars and moon, it’s apparent that Bunny’s room is in a high rise. Both windows lack either locks or any type of window guard or restraining device. Suggested change: To avoid the appearance of encouraging children to peer out of unsafe windows, and thus tumble to their deaths, digitally remove windows. Bunny can easily bid goodnight to a moon painted on the wall with nontoxic, lead-free paint.

G. Mice carry hantavirus, hemorrhagic fever, salmonella and Lyme disease. Suggested change: Digitally remove.

H. A fire blazing in the fireplace while Bunny sleeps? Suggested change: Get rid of it. At the very least, digitally add a fire extinguisher to the wall. And hello? Where are the smoke detectors?

I. The United States Fire Administration advises against using “alternative heating devices” like fires to dry clothing. Suggested change: Digitally move mittens and socks to other end of the room.

J. Clearly the bookshelf is unanchored to the wall. If an earthquake hit, Bunny could get squashed flat. Suggested change: Digitally remove. We can’t see the titles on the spines of the books anyway, which might convey to children it’s all right to pick up any old book and read it.

K. Who exactly is this rabbit? Bunny says, “A quiet old lady whispering hush?” But what do we know of her really? Suggested change: Digitally alter quiet old lady’s apron with a message emblazoned across the front that says she was hired from a reputable agency, is a citizen and has passed a criminal background check.

L. Penetrating injuries to the chest by knitting needles are not uncommon. Also, someone could lose an eye. Suggested change: Digitally remove. The quiet old lady is not getting paid to knit, anyway.

Karen Karbo is the author, most recently, of “Minerva Clark Gets a Clue.”