- Too many editors want editorial cartoons to be like news
stories -- fair and balanced. But that's not what editorial cartoons are
supposed to do. When editors and publishers opt for less controversial
syndicated work, they do their readers -- and democracy -- a disservice.
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- John Sherffius, the editorial cartoonist of the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, recently resigned after a series of disagreements with the
newspaper's editor over his criticism of President George W. Bush and the
Republican Party. In one of his last cartoons for the paper, Sherffius
drew a Republican elephant riding a pig representing pork-barrel projects.
The caption line read: "The party of fiscal discipline."
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- When the deputy editorial page editor asked Sherffius
why he didn't include a Democratic donkey in the drawing, Sherffius replied
that, according to newspaper accounts, Republican projects were receiving
most of the money. The explanation satisfied the deputy editorial page
editor but not the newspaper's editor, Ellen Soeteber, who told him he
should either learn to take more direction or look for work elsewhere,
The New York Times reported Jan. 12.
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- Given such a choice, Sherffius quit, creating yet another
vacancy in a profession that has seen its numbers fall alarmingly. Twenty-five
years ago, there were about 150 editorial cartoonists working full-time
for newspapers; now there are perhaps half that many.
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- The state of the art is a result of both the economics
of the newspaper industry and of editors who have little appreciation or
understanding for political satire. Too many editors want editorial cartoons
to be like news stories -- fair and balanced. But that's not what editorial
cartoons are supposed to do. When "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry
Trudeau was once criticized for being unfair, he responded that "criticizing
a political satirist for being unfair is like criticizing a 260-pound nose
guard for being too physical."
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- As the newspaper industry has declined in both readership
and influence, so too have the journalistic responsibilities of editors,
who opt for publishing generic syndicated cartoons over provocative, staff-drawn
cartoons because they are cheaper and generate fewer phone calls. Pulitzer
Prize-winning cartoonist Joel Pett of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader
once expressed the frustration of his beleaguered colleagues by telling
editors: "(Editorial cartooning) has a proud history of treating readers
to a unique mix of devastating humor, savage ridicule, bitter irony, and
chilling tragedy. And you people are killing it."
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- Since the days that Harper's Weekly cartoonist Thomas
Nast helped destroy New York City's "Boss Tweed," editorial cartoonists
have made a profound contribution to our democracy by pointing out the
naked truths of our emperors. The Washington Post's Herbert Block, or Herblock
as he signed his drawings, captured the excesses of the Red Scare by caricaturing
U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Herblock and Paul Conrad reduced Richard Nixon
to the diabolical politician he was.
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- Years before President Clinton was impeached for his
sexual behavior, Clay Bennett, then working for the St. Petersburg (Fla.)
Times, drew Clinton wearing a T-shirt that said: "I'm With Stupid."
Below it was an arrow pointing straight down. (His newspaper did not publish
the drawing.) As the Bush administration has shamefully questioned the
patriotism of its critics, a number of editorial cartoonists nevertheless
have had the courage to raise legitimate questions about the administration's
war in Iraq.
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- Nothing is more patriotic than social criticism. Editorial
cartoons are as irreverent as the Boston Tea Party and as American as the
U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment doesn't exist so that we can freely
praise our elected officials, it exists so we can freely criticize them
-- and editorial cartoonists represent the most extreme form of criticism
in the newspaper. Newspapers who give their cartoonist the freedom to express
their own views, as free as possible from editorial restraint, reinforce
the provocative message that an uninhibited exchange of opinions not only
strengthens but maintains a democracy; in fact, it is necessary for a democracy.
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- Twenty years ago, James Squires, who was then the editor
of the Chicago Tribune, wrote an op-ed piece that said a single drawing
by Jeff MacNelly, the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist,
could cause him more grief than all the words written by all his reporters
in a year. Nonetheless, he insisted he was committed to letting MacNelly
do his job as unrestrained and unfettered as possible.
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- Because MacNelly, Dick Locher (the newspaper's other
editorial cartoonist), and other talented cartoonists "represent the
most incisive and effective form of commentary known to man and one as
vital to the exercise of free speech and open debate as any words that
ever appeared on such pages," Squires wrote, "to censor them
would be a definite disservice to art, and a probable danger to democracy."
-
- But the Tribune's support for editorial cartooning belongs
to another time. For economic reasons, the newspaper did not fill either
the vacancy left by Locher's retirement nor has it found a successor for
MacNelly, who died in June 2000. Instead of expressing provocative editorial
cartoons on its editorial pages, the newspaper now apologizes if its syndicated
drawings upset its readers.
-
- Newspaper editors need to quit acting like government
bureaucrats and corporate accountants. If they begin acting like guardians
of the public trust, as they're intended to do, they may find that their
editorial pages give their readers something to look forward to in the
morning. They can do this by hiring editorial cartoonists.
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- Editorial cartoonists, however, will continue to be endangered
species until publishers and editors believe cartoonists are worth saving.
And how do you do that? Joel Pett believes that newspapers could hire cartoonists
without sacrificing their bottom line. "If they take seriously the
journalistic side of their obligation," he said. "If they sign
on to the quaint but true notion that journalism ought to comfort the afflicted
and afflict the comfortable, there's no better way to afflict the comfortable
than with editorial cartoons."
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- Chris Lamb (lambc@cofc.edu) , Ph.D., an associate professor
of communication at the College of Charleston (S.C.), is the author of
"Drawn to Extremes: The Limits of Editorial Cartoons in the United
States," which will be published this year by Columbia University
Press.
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- Copyright 2004 Editor & Publisher
- © 2004 VNU eMedia Inc.
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