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Mayor Accuses Obama of Blocking Charlie Brown X-Mas Cartoon
 December 4, 2009 10:18 pm
Russell Wiseman, the mayor of Arlington, Tennessee, is fuming because he believes that Obama deliberately timed his speech about the war in Afghanistan to interfere with the airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. According to Time magazine, this is what Wiseman posted on his Facebook page:
Sounds like Wiseman holds two positions in Arlington: mayor and village idiot. 100 comments posted in Cartoon Culture 
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He did get one thing right – it is pitiful. Don’t think we’re talking about the same thing though…
He pushed back Prep and Landing too!
Holy freakin’ racist!
wooooooooooooow! Do some people actually HEAR what they say?
yeah how dare he interrupt a cartoon celebrating a pagan holiday dressed up with Christian themes of peace on earth and goodwill towards men. Gall durn articulate Black guy with a Muslim name who is in charge of our country and has important things to say but obviously not as important as Charlie brown’s questioning of the true meaning of Christmas that is played one billion times in repeats during this time of year, every year, for the past 30 years! GRRR!
Curiously enough when I tried to find his facebook page it was either gone or he wasn’t sharing info with non-friends anymore. AFAIK no apology or “my remarks were misinterpreted”. I’d heard that the special got bumped back to next week anyway.
By the way in ‘65 CBS was originally not too crazy about a cartoon that used kids voices for kid roles, had a jazz soundtrack, and religious content. They thought nobody would watch. How wrong they were.
CBS almost cancelled Charlie Brown
Obama is not Muslim, but so what if he was. I am so sick and tired of these racist idiots confusing Muslim and terrorists. There is nothing wrong with being Muslim, just like there is nothing wrong with being any other religion. Stop using the word ‘Muslim’ in a negative context!
This must be a very sad and fearful man.
But why is Time Magazine looking up Facebook private posts of a “mayor” from some 2500 inhabitants village?
He is right about one thing. We DO have a Muslim president.
Call the WAAAA-mbulance…Mayor Wiseman needs treatment.
I don’t think this guy DESERVES to watch Christmas TV when he’s shoving beliefs in to people’s throats (..when the answer should simply be ‘yes’)… Pardon the blaspheming, but .. christ.
Oh my! This is terrible. It is not like ABC can reschedule it. Oh wait, they did! What does this guy think Obama is going to do, make a speech every time Charlie Brown gets some airtime?
I’m tired of Republicians making up junk and have always been a Democrat. Really does a guy like George W. Bush even care that a thing such as animation exist? I doubt it if he doesn’t care about the soldiers being killed.
Damn White House not knowing what to interrupt! They should have interrupted an old Coca-Cola commercial or something like that…. oh wait….
Knock off the political posts, please.
wow, you americans sure do love your racist elected leaders…
God bless the diversity of hatred here in the good ol’ US of A. :p
The cheapest way to pre-empt tired old Christmas programming is to send thirty-thousand troops to a foreign country. It was a deliberate act! To make sure RUDOLPH is bumped, the US will nuke Iran.
It’s a good thing cartoon characters are immune from catching diseases like GROSS IGNORANCE!!!!
Isn’t putting the words “Facebook” and “private” in the same sentence a contradiction in terms?
It is very sad when someone’s entire holiday season is so fragile that it can be ruined by a TV schedule change.
Brian Levin wrote a good article last week about the mainstreaming of extremism in America. What do you expect when the right wing takes its cues from a cartoon character (Sarah Palin)?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-levin-jd/sarahs-dance-with-conspir_b_379831.html
Now this is an GOOD complaint post! What kind of attitude is the mayor of a state thinking?! Granted, I’m sure it was a mistake by the network.
Please call the good mayor and ask him to explain his comments. His home phone number is [we deleted his number- brewmasters].
The guy’s name is “Wiseman”. Sometimes comedy writes itself.
I’ll tell ya what’s pitiful: The same people who gave a moron 8 years to ruin this nation won’t give the new guy one year to fix it.
I really wish the Brew would leave out politics. Even though the mayor is a moron, I feel that Cartoonbrew should be a place of discussion for cartoons, not politics.
Well actually Guido I don’t think they needed to look up the mayor, he had over 500 ‘friends’ – I’m sure a few of those had connections and found his statement … interesting to share with media outlets.
apparently the mayor’s dvd player stopped working…
why is it we’ve become so polarized ideologically that we see conspiracies lurking in everything the “other party” does or says? (and this attitude seems to exist in far too great a measure, on both side of the aisle)
You see, its people like Wiseman who act before they think saying things that don’t make any sense. If he only knew what Obama’s beliefs were or that the charlie brown Christmas special plays often during the holiday season. And the fact that it was fueled by his hatred of muslims makes him sound more like a jerk!
Stupid as this is, I don’t think anybody should give out his personal phone number. Calling his office would be enough.
I always feel sorry for the normal, non-racist people that live in the town where an official representing that town is publicly humiliating himself and everyone in it.
I can relate
Topher believes our president is indeed Muslim. He’s not, of course, but even if he were – so what? Last I checked being a Christian wasn’t a requirement for American citizenship.
If no one else is going to say it, I’m going to say it! Russel Wiseman is a BLOCKHEAD!
“Christopher Cook says:
Call the WAAAA-mbulance…Mayor Wiseman needs treatment.”
you’ll have to dial Whine-one-one:)
Good Grief.
“we sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there”
And that’s when I stopped taking this seriously.
You know… it’s one thing when a horrible, ranting, ignorant, paranoid, delusional blatantly racist crackpot starts frothing off the mouth, embarrassing himself and others. Because you can at least be confident that 99% of the time no one is listening to him and no one cares.
But it’s quite another thing entirely when that aforementioned horrible, ranting, ignorant, paranoid, delusional blatantly racist crackpot somehow got the status of “Mayor”. That is deeply and incredibly sad, and says a plethora of negative things about our society in general.
This “mayor” should be impeached and thrown out of office immediately for his comments, but additionally probably deserves his ass flat out kicked.
Random- Obama is being accused of timing his speeches to interfere with a classic piece of animation. If you’re reading politics into that, that’s your choice, but this is very much a cartoon-related story.
Thank you for removing his phone number, brewmasters!
It’s not like the special won’t be on again!
Good grief!
Wow. That guy must really like his Charlie Brown. I’m not sure I can blame him for being upset that it was interrupted (it is a classic after all) but this guy isn’t very informed. He recognizes that Obama is only pretending to be a Christian but he jumps to the conclusion that he is Muslim because of his name (I’d say the guy’s more of a namist than a racist). Anyone who knows anything knows that he is a Freemason who worships the Egyptian sun god Ray (just like most of our other presidents [for more information on Ray see back of $1 bill]) and is a puppet of the shadow government in its quest for global domination. Was interrupting Charlie Brown part of the Masonic shadow government’s plan to secularize society? I say probably not, but it seems to me that “Time” kind of went out of its way to find this guys comment. I mean really! How many people (besides the inhabitants of Arlington, of course) really care what a mayor of a 9700 person town puts on his Facebook page?
ah, one thing I forgot: If he likes the Charlie Brown Christmas special that much then he should buy the DVD.
There are some folks who seem,which Christ was never born at all !! Thats what so sad about it all !!
It’s all cartoons…Charlie Brown bumped by Mr. Hankey.
Hell, have you gotten a load of our senators?
I started reading his statement until he brought religion into play and suddenly it was all WAH WAHHH WAH-WAH WAHHH WAHHH like Charlie Brown’s teacher.
That’s totally wacky, but who cares what some small town mayor posted on his Facebook page ?
Way too much coverage to a lunatic fringe.
(and Mr. Mayor, if you’re a true fan why don’t you own A Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD ? What’s it cost, something like $14.99 at Target or probably $5.95 from Amazon.com ? Watch it whenever you want and without the idiotic commercial interruptions . I’m sure it’s also posted on YouTube. )
The ignorance of that was ASTOUNDING! I am amazed by some people. AMAZED.
Perhaps buying the DVD would remedy it more than spewing racist drivel on Facebook.
AAAAAUGH!!! This mayor is . . . quite the racist.
Mayor got so bent over missing his favorite cartoon he probably also missed his weekly Klan meeting.
HAHA
I side with Phil and Keith and I appreciate Dave’s go get em attitude.
I find it interesting that so many people here are calling this boneheaded mayor a racist. I read a lot of silly things in his rant, but nothing racist (as quoted here). Islam isn’t a race.
I read that in the voice of ‘Pa’ from the Hillbilly Bears
Yes, please, nix the politics here, no good at all can come of it. This story is only tangentially animation-related anyway.
that mayor is right… ask obama if god transformed into a ghost and came to earth to impregnate a virgin and what happens? he talks for ten minutes !!!!! everyone knows the simple answer is ‘yes’… who needs to think about that?
The story made me mad wheareas the picture made me giggle. Thanks for that refreshing little juxtaposition.
Uh, I still don’t get how people complain about posting mildly politically related posts here.
Shut up! It’s their blog! You don’t like it keep your mouth shut and don’t read it and go to AWN or better yet, start your own. Man! Do you not understand the whole idea behind a blog?
Good grief is right…
Now we know why those cadets looked so solemn during the President’s speech… they were missing Charlie Brown!
But is it really a surprise that a mayor is saying crap like that when we have US Senators saying stuff just as crazy? He’s just taking the lead of his ideological role models.
Hmmm. Seems strange to me to expect comments about this would concern animation rather than politics, but …
Here’s one that actually does — or, rather, the newspaper-strip that inspired the TV specials.
This tiny dust-up shows how strong the (dubious) subtext of “Peanuts” as a Christian-friendly work has become. All dates back to that (unintentionally) insidious 1965 book, *The Gospel According to Peanuts* by Robert L. Short.
Poor Tennessee!
I absolutely love that state! (Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Dollywood). Never encountered anything like this while touring around.
It is a free country. I suppose that means you’re free to be stupid as like. But if you’re a politician blogging on the net – well, you know what they say, “the probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your actions.” On the net you can multiply that by 1000x, if you’re a politician or celebrity, multiply it by 100,000x. He shouldn’t be shocked by his sudden fame.
There’s just not much you can do about a man as stupid as that…well, at least he’s passionate about his cartoons. There’s common ground there I suppose.
Unbelievable!
You know, the real sad thing is that while the special did get rescheduled, it’s apparently not getting an hour time slot. Which means ABC is going to take the scissors to it.
Yeah, no thank you.
This is why most animation has migrated to cable these days. The broadcast networks have become nothing more than local CNN/Fox News clones who want nothing to do with animation. So these networks will gladly interrupt a cartoon whenever they dang well please. It’s amazing that ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ is still on broadcast TV anymore. Maybe if it moved to cable like the rest of the animation industry, it wouldn’t have to deal with arrogant, narcissistic politicians stepping in with their self righteous chest pounding agenda.
I wish I lived in that town so I could vote that ignorant jerk out of office.
The real trouble with this guy is that he was ELECTED.
Makes me wonder about the condition of the fella he beat.
Oh, and allow me to congratulate the people of Tennessee. Check out some of the best letters to the local paper about this clown:
Waiting for Wiseman’s Apology
This kind of wonderful writing almost makes up for the fact that Wiseman was not just elected, but RE-elected. Sheesh.
@David Brenamen: It’s racisim in the obvious sense. I’m well aware that islam isn’t a race, but rather a religion. But it is practiced most by minority races that get very closely tied and racially profiles along with their beliefs.
It is a question of belifism AND racism in a broader sense, and this mayor’s comments are offensive, insensitive, ignorant and racially motivated in the condemnation of a religion and the races most closely profiled.
I seriously doubt that most people making the same kind of horrible statements of this mayor are thinking of “those damn Muslims” in a broad or acceptably intelligent stance with it comes to race as well.
It’s always the uneducated, ignorant and angry like this man, that lump religion hand in hand with other races and skin colors that tend to practice them.
More politics on Cartoon Brew. Gee, I’m just surprised someone didn’t find a way to blame George Bush. What a breath of fresh air!
Back when I was a kid and President Nixon would preempt some show that I really wanted to see, I checked it up to a then obvious conspiracy- how much mean ol’ grownups are all in cahoots to ruin us poor kids’ fun.
Good grief, CartoonBrew. Like liberals don’t make stupid statements, too? Either highlight some of those once in awhile (in the interests of fairness and balance) or just stick to animation. I like the second suggestion better.
My favorite is Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
I’d like to bring up an interesting article to back up my last post.
http://thoughtnami.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-miss-entertainment-on-broadcast-tv.html
Wow…really? What a racist jerk. Seriously though, if you want to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, there’s always ABCFamily. They’re showing Christmas special all month; and it’s going to be the classic version that we all know and love , not the rescheduled cut down one…
Ugh.
Really grasping at straws to veil your ignorant racism. The president… of a nation… is taking his potshots… at YOUR hometown’s screening of a fucking cartoon… simply stunning.
I wish stupidity like this kind of drivel was cancerous.
This IS a joke…Right??
An entity calling itself “Feh” writes: “It’s racisim in the obvious sense. I’m well aware that islam isn’t a race, but rather a religion. But it is practiced most by minority races that get very closely tied and racially profiles along with their beliefs.”
As I understand it, 30% of the world’s muslims are Asian and 20% are sub-Saharan African. That means that the majority (or at least a substantial plurality) of muslims are caucasian. Not that I’d expect an idiot like this mayor to know that. But I still don’t understand how calling someone a Muslim is any more racist than calling him a Catholic or a Jew.
Finally, someone in Washington who’s willing to stand up to the powerful Peanuts lobby!
Amid,
Clearly this mayor is representative of most people who criticize Obama… a bunch of redneck racists maintaining the pure-uh-tee of the white man. The guy is an easy target so take your shot in the name of leading the animation conversation. Hopefully the animation industry will rebound as a result. Did Fred and Sharon recover from the black eye you gave them ’cause they were asking for it from you. Sure, your article is cartoon-related though a bit of a stretch. At least you didn’t pretend it had to be cartoon-related with this one you started:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/president-obama-open-thread.html
What’s frustrating to me is that topics negative in tone or subject field the greatest number of responses while genuine discussion regarding worthwhile productions and events get a trickle. You can’t control that but you sure know how to pander to your “audience” for attention.
It’s your right to censor comments and I won’t be surprised to see you zap this one, even though I like to think you have the integrity and guts leaving it go as it is.
I feel sorry for Obama. He’s kin to Charlie Brown in that he can’t catch a break at all, no matter what he does.
i dont f—-ing believe it! they can show that crap cartoon anytime! they’ve been showing it for about 40 freakin years! how dare he use it as an excuse to spout racist hatred about our president! thats right..OUR PRESIDENT! we really ought think about passing legislation where citizens of the u.s need to take a test to maintain their citizenship..we take to much for granted and we have a grandiose sense of entitlement..if we had to earn it..quite a different story!
Point of order – the original “Charlie Brown Christmas” was a half-hour special. In recent years, the network has taken to bundling it with a more recent Christmas-themed Peanuts special, hence the hourlong block.
If the rescheduled broadcast is a half-hour (I haven’t looked, so I don’t know), it’ll still be the original special in its entirety.
i hate to see Obama’s face everytime I see a Christmas special.
By the way had the people of Tennessee voted for their own former Senator in 2000 (Florida or no Florida), the ticket of Gore-Lieberman would have taken office on 1/20/01. That’s right folks, the Volunteer State’s 11 electoral votes would have given Gore a win nationally but…the guy…lost…his…home…state. That’s an inconvenient truth..
Its good the Mayor had an outlet like Facebook for his anger, if not he may have gone out and done something REALLY stupid.
That…didn’t make any sense at all.
It’s not even a matter or politics anymore, that post was just pure ignorance.
This man [Riseman] is a blockhead.
“If the rescheduled broadcast is a half-hour (I haven’t looked, so I don’t know), it’ll still be the original special in its entirety.”
No, ad requirements have increased since the original showing. So a tv half hour is now generally about 22 minutes of programming, which is less than it was when the special came out. Based on the DVD, it should run about 25 minutes (without the original Coke ads). They could choose to run limited commercial interruption and run the whole thing, but when they’ve been running the hour long versions, the good episode in the twofer comes first and runs well past the 30 minute mark (including the commercials). Presumably they’ve been really shredding the bad episode of the twofers to make room for the commercials. I’d expect them to shred the good half if that’s all they’re showing.
“Point of order – the original “Charlie Brown Christmas” was a half-hour special. In recent years, the network has taken to bundling it with a more recent Christmas-themed Peanuts special, hence the hourlong block.
If the rescheduled broadcast is a half-hour (I haven’t looked, so I don’t know), it’ll still be the original special in its entirety.”
No, it won’t be. Commercials are longer than they were in 1965. If this special is in a half hour time slot it WILL be edited.
I’d rather have seen Charlie Brown, because that means my President wasn’t sending any young men and women off to war. But it is what is.
Besides he did have the good sense to not schedule it during the Victoria’s Secret show. :)
“No, it won’t be. Commercials are longer than they were in 1965. If this special is in a half hour time slot it WILL be edited.”
Perhaps (it’s been shown unedited in recent years), but what I was referring to was the implication earlier in the comments that a half-hour, rather than an hour, meant that the special itself would be edited to fit in half as much time. That’s not the case, and if you’d read carefully, you’d have seen that’s what I was saying.
And by the way – commercials aren’t longer than they were in ‘65 – the commercial breaks are. Commercials in ‘65 generally ran a minute each. Today ;30’s are the rule.
In defense of Mayor Wiseman, maybe if he heard Linus’s speech again he’d learn something important.
“Perhaps (it’s been shown unedited in recent years), but what I was referring to was the implication earlier in the comments that a half-hour, rather than an hour, meant that the special itself would be edited to fit in half as much time. That’s not the case, and if you’d read carefully, you’d have seen that’s what I was saying.”
Any time in recent years that an older Peanuts special ends up in a half hour time slot SOMETHING always gets edited so that it can fit. When “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” ran on ABC a couple weeks ago it was in an hour time slot (along with “The Mayflower Voyages”) and didn’t end until around 8:34. If an older half hour Peanuts special is to run completely unedited it NEEDS a time slot longer than a half hour. So unless ABC plans to run “A Charlie Brown Christmas” without commercials, it WILL be edited if they’re only going to give it a half hour.
“And by the way – commercials aren’t longer than they were in ‘65 – the commercial breaks are. Commercials in ‘65 generally ran a minute each. Today ;30’s are the rule.”
Maybe I should have specified that commercial BREAKS are longer now. But I think it should have been obvious what I meant.
Has nobody else besides me noticed the striking resemblance to Charlie Brown and Barak Obama? They have the exact same shaped heads. coincidence???? I think not.The US government is trying to confuse us!!!!
Palin-Brown 2012: THAT is the winning ticket Mr. Steele!!!
PS: And maybe Snoopy could serve as Secretary of Defense :-P
Mike, you’ve managed to miss (or ignore) my original point yet again.
“Maybe I should have specified that commercial BREAKS are longer now. But I think it should have been obvious what I meant.”
…just as it should have been obvious to you what I meant initially, especially after I restated it a second time.
Why didn’t the Mayor just break out the DVD for his kids to watch? If he doesn’t want to watch the President he doesn’t have to. Yet he comes on with his racist bullcrap because he wants to be an idiot. He’s got a problem with Muslims? Let’s send him a DVD of Mish-Mish cartoons!
Watching a 40-year-old cartoon special on broadcast TV is so 1970’s-ish…
Isn’t it more convenient to watch it when you want to via DVD (or if you have it on tape. VHS or beta.)
But Mister Mayor does need to wake up and give the President the respect due to the office.
I didn’t watch it tonight, but according to someone on TZ “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was butchered in it’s half hour time slot.
Sad.
obama goes to church almost every sunday for 25 years and that proves he is a musllim. McCain admittedly never goes to church and that proves he is a christian?
This guy is dumb for thinking Obama did this to block Charlie Brown, he could have came across a lot better than what he did but I understand kind of where he is coming from, it’s ok that our country accepts people of every color, religion, and what not, but the fact of the matter is our country tries to cater to them way too much., and make it like the country they came from which is a joke! This is America love it or leave it!