Blog 7

This political cartoon drawn by Andy Marlette illustrates the NSA phone surveillance scandal. The wolf is the Obama administration and Little Red Riding Hood is the Statue of Liberty. The wolf represents Obama and all of his employees and Little Red represents American citizens who are affected by the surveillance. The NSA was (is) spying on Americans by listening in on phone conversations and reading emails and text messages. This was very controversial because obviously, people want their privacy and people do not think the government should have the right to listen in and people do not want the government to listen in. 

I think that it is very interesting that the cartoonist chose to use “Little Red Riding Hood” as a theme for this cartoon. The wolf says one of the lines of the most famous dialogue from a fairy tale, “All the better to hear you with my dear!” This line fits perfectly with the political theme of the cartoon as he is talking to the Statue of Liberty (Americans). I like this cartoon. I think it is a very interesting way to portray this controversial topic. I think that most people do not realize that the NSA is not really listening to the details in conversations, they are just looking for keywords and specific words that might be about or hint at crimes or attacks that might take place. The NSA does not care about what average American citizens are talking about. But people do not think that the government should be allowed to listen in on private conversations.

https://www.commonsenseevaluation.com/2013/06/18/cartoon-of-the-day-the-big-bad-wolf/