Ed Noor: I am posting this older article because this is another example of censorship although not necessarily against Conservative cartoons; both Liberal and Conservative artists lost their employment with this cowardly act by the editorial leadership of this left wing rag. It is interesting to read Patrick Chapatte's words on losing his work after being the man to bring political cartooning to the publication.
From Chappatte's website.
Cartoon
published on the front page of the NYT website on January 8, 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo attacks and won the 2015 Overseas Press Club Award.
All my professional life, I have been
driven by the conviction that the unique freedom of political cartooning
entails a great sense of responsibility.
In 20-plus years of delivering a twice-weekly cartoon for the International Herald Tribune first, and then The New York Times, after receiving three Overseas Press Club awards in that category, I thought the case for political cartoons had been made (in a newspaper that was notoriously reluctant to the form in past history.)
In 20-plus years of delivering a twice-weekly cartoon for the International Herald Tribune first, and then The New York Times, after receiving three Overseas Press Club awards in that category, I thought the case for political cartoons had been made (in a newspaper that was notoriously reluctant to the form in past history.)
 |
2011 Overseas Press Club Award
|
 |
2018 Overseas Press Club Award
|
But
something happened.
In
April 2019, a Netanyahu caricature from syndication reprinted
in the international editions triggered widespread outrage, a Times apology and the termination of
syndicated cartoons.
Weeks
later, my employers tell me they're ending political cartoons altogether by
July.
I’m
putting down my pen, with a sigh: that’s a lot of years of work undone by a
single cartoon ~ not even mine ~ that should never have run in the best
newspaper of the world.
 |
Cartoon by Antonio Antunes, Expresso, Portugal.
|
I’m afraid this is not just about cartoons, but about journalism and opinion in general.
We
are in a world where moralistic mobs gather on social media and rise like a
storm, falling upon newsrooms in an overwhelming blow.
This
requires immediate counter-measures by publishers, leaving no room for
ponderation or meaningful discussions.
Twitter
is a place for furor, not debate.
The
most outraged voices tend to define the conversation, and the angry crowd
follows in.
Over the last years, with the Cartooning for Peace Foundation we established with French cartoonist Plantu and the late Kofi Annan ~ a great defender of cartoons ~ or on the board of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, I have consistently warned about the dangers of those sudden (and often organized) backlashes that carry everything in their path.
Over the last years, with the Cartooning for Peace Foundation we established with French cartoonist Plantu and the late Kofi Annan ~ a great defender of cartoons ~ or on the board of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, I have consistently warned about the dangers of those sudden (and often organized) backlashes that carry everything in their path.
If cartoons are a prime target
it’s because of their nature and exposure:
they are an encapsulated opinion,
a visual shortcut
with an unmatched capacity
to touch the mind.
to touch the mind.
That’s their strength,
and their vulnerability.
They
might also be a revealer of something deeper. More than often, the real target,
behind the cartoon, is the media that published it.
“Political cartoons were born with democracy.
And they are challenged when freedom is.”
In 1995, at twenty-something, I moved to New York with a crazy dream: I would convince the New York Times to have political cartoons.
An
art director told me: “We never had political cartoons and we will never have
any.“
But
I was stubborn.
For
years, I did illustrations for NYT Opinion and the Book Review, and then I
persuaded the Paris-based International
Herald Tribune (a NYT-Washington
Post joint venture) to hire an in-house editorial cartoonist.
By
2013, when the NYT had fully incorporated the IHT, there I was: featured on the
NYT website, on its social media and in its international print editions.
In
2018, we started translating cartoons on the NYT Chinese and Spanish
websites.
The
U.S. paper edition remained the last frontier.
Gone
out the door, I had come back through the window.
And
proven that art director wrong: The
New York Times did have political cartoons.
For
a while in history, they dared.
Along with The Economist, featuring the excellent Kal, The New York Times was one of the last venues for international political cartooning ~ for a U.S. newspaper aiming to have a meaningful impact worldwide, it made sense.
Along with The Economist, featuring the excellent Kal, The New York Times was one of the last venues for international political cartooning ~ for a U.S. newspaper aiming to have a meaningful impact worldwide, it made sense.
Cartoons can jump over borders.
Who
will show the emperor Erdogan that he has no clothes, when Turkish cartoonists
can’t do it? ~ One of them, our friend Musa Kart, is now in jail.
Cartoonists
from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Russia were forced into exile.
Over
the last years, some of the very best cartoonists in the U.S., like Nick Anderson and Rob Rogers, lost their positions
because their publishers found their work too critical of Trump.
Maybe
we should start worrying. And pushing back.
Political
cartoons were born with democracy. And they are challenged when freedom is.
“The power of images has never been so big.“
Curiously, I remain positive. This is the era of images.
“The power of images has never been so big.“
Curiously, I remain positive. This is the era of images.
In a world of short attention span,
their power has never been so big.
Out
there is a whole world of possibilities, not only in editorial cartooning,
still or animated, but also in new fields like on-stage illustrated
presentations and long-form comics reportage ~ of which I have been a proponent
for the last 25 years.
(I’m
happy, by the way, to have opened the door for the genre at the NYT with the “Inside Death Row“ series in 2016.
The
following year, another series about Syrian refugees by Jake Halpern and
Michael Sloan got the NYT a Pulitzer Prize.)
It’s
also a time where the media need to renew themselves and reach out to new
audiences.
And stop being afraid of the angry mob.
In
the insane world we live in, the art of the visual commentary is needed more
than ever. And so is humor.
Patrick Chappatte
June 10, 2019
Patrick Chappatte
June 10, 2019
See an archive of Chappatte’s cartoons for the NYT here.
His comics
journalism series inside death row here.
***
UPDATES
Here is the statement issued by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists on the New York Times' decision to cease publishing editorial cartoons and halting the regular contributions of one of the finest cartoonists in the business, Patrick Chappatte.
***
UPDATES
Here is the statement issued by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists on the New York Times' decision to cease publishing editorial cartoons and halting the regular contributions of one of the finest cartoonists in the business, Patrick Chappatte.
Editorial cartoonists across America and the world have consistently, uniformly and vigorously defended the ideal of a free press from the attacks of tyrants, dictators and twittering demagogues.
.
But now
cartoonists are united in their outrage as it has become apparent this week
that The New York Times has indeed sadly failed.
.
.
Monday, the Times announced it would no longer publish in-house editorial cartoons in
its editions, ending their regular publication of the work of internationally
acclaimed cartoonist Patrick Chappatte.
.
.
This
decision comes weeks after the Times was burned by their own editorial
negligence in running a syndicated cartoon that was widely condemned as being
anti-Semitic.
.
.
Doubling
down on this clumsiness in response to the resultant furor, the Times announced that they would no longer run syndicated editorial cartoons.
.
.
Their
decision now to not run in-house cartoons as well only adds to that
ham-handedness, blaming the medium of cartoons for what resulted from their own
lack of editorial oversight.
.
.
In a
statement defending their action, the Times said they “plan to continue
investing in forms of Opinion journalism, including visual journalism, that
express nuance, complexity and strong voice …”
.
.
From this
description, it seems the type of “visual
journalism” the Times envisions has more to do with storytelling
than with expressing strong opinions.
.
.
The best
editorial cartoons are not celebrated for their nuance.
.
.
It is their
clarity and pointedness, the sharpness of their satire, that makes them such
powerful vehicles for expressing opinion.
.
.
There is no
“on the other hand”
in an editorial cartoon.
.
This power,
understandably, makes editors nervous, but to completely discontinue their use
is letting anxiety slide into cowardice.
.
.
With their
decision to end using editorial cartoons, the Gray Lady, as the Times has been
called, has become even more gray and dingy.
.
.
And the
environment for free expression and the free exchange of ideas has become even bleaker.
.
.
The Board of the Association of
American Editorial Cartoonists
Kevin Siers, President
Kevin Siers, President
***
By choosing
not to print editorial cartoons in the future, the Times can be sure that their editors will never again make a poor cartoon
choice. Editors at the Times
have also made poor choices of words in the past. I would suggest that the Times should also choose not to print words in
the future ~ just to be on the safe side.
Daryl Cagle, head of the syndicate
Cagle Cartoons, which distributes Chappatte’s work to about 800 subscribing
clients.
"The New York Times political cartoon ban is a sinister
and dangerous over-reaction" in The Guardian.
"The Times chickens out" on Clay Jones' blog.
