An Editor Who Gets It
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Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from The Washington Post after an editor killed a cartoon depicting wealthy businessmen and leading media figures, including Jeff Bezos, who owns The Post, paying obeisance to President-elect Donald Trump.
It is a sharp, honest jab at the powerful. That’s the role of an editorial cartoonist, and it has been a valuable item in the journalistic toolbox for decades.
In recent years, however, the number of artists who make their points primarily with images on opinion pages has declined sharply. It’s a major loss to newspapers and their readers, but the money-changers who control the industry either don’t know that or, more likely, don’t care.
Tom Lawrence writes a fairly long editorial column for The N’West Iowa REVIEW about the sad state of newspapers and editorial cartooning titled “Editorial cartoons are sadly leaving the picture.”
Mr Lawrence remembers the good days when Herblock, Mauldin, Conrad, Goldberg, and other carried weight; and when The Pulitzers meant editorial cartoons.
I have worked with other talented cartoonists over the years, some who were on the staff, others who contributed to the paper. There are still a few around, and The N’West Iowa REVIEW has published many locally produced cartoons over the years.
There’s not even a category for them in the Pulitzers, which last honored a cartoonist, Jim Morin of the Miami Herald, in 2017. The category is now called “Illustrated Reporting and Commentary.”
Tom even dragged an editorial cartoonist with him when he was put in charge of a paper:
My friend and colleague Andy Jacobs created outstanding editorial cartoons for The Rapid City Weekly News during its brief, shining run 2005-09. I first became aware of Andy’s artistic brilliance when we worked at The Duncan Banner in Oklahoma in 2005. When I was hired to help start The Weekly News, I asked to bring Andy along.
One of our supposed bosses saw his talents and wanted to switch him to advertising design, but when we said that wasn’t why we came to Rapid City, that idea was quickly dropped.
For the next 40 months, Andy drew cartoons that elicited laughter from our readers and staff, caused some politicians to sweat and moan and told the truth with a few strokes of his pen.
Unfortunately, like editorial cartoonists, editors like Tom Lawrence are fading from sight.
feature image excerpted from a Herblock cartoon © The Washington Post
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