Blue over Curly

Today's print media devote a fair bit of space to the Michael Leunig cartoon hoax. The Australian and The Age as you'd expect adopt different positions which are reflected in the headlines of the former's first editorial "Poison Pen's Perils: Who knew Curly Pyjama was so big in Tehran?" and the latter's story "Caught in a hoax, Leunig finds it no laughing matter." Not unexpectedly some elements of the international media including the BBC have picked up the story.

Some interesting points have emerged from the affair to date:

1. The allegedly offensive cartoon was published in 2002 on the ABC's Media Watch website, where as I post it is still available. It would be interesting to hear Mr Balding's attempt to reconcile this with his banning of the Danish cartoons.

2. Today's Crikey suggests that the hoax was the work of persons connected (or with access to) Chaser. The SMH (but not The Age) has updated its online story to reflect this.