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Controversies Editorial cartooning

Mike Lester cartoon stirs the pot in Tallahassee

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Mike Lestor Cartoon
© Mike Lester of the News-Tribune. Used by permission by Cagletoons.com.

Mike Lester, editorial cartoonist for the News-Tribune in Rome GA, has managed to get a strong reaction from Tallahassee Democrat readers with a recent cartoon depicting Uncle Sam holding a copy of the New York Times that sports “All the Treason Fit to Print” as a headline.

From the story in E&P:

Democrat Associate Editor Mark Hohmeister, in a piece posted today on Tallahassee.com, said he chose to publish the cartoon even though he didn’t agree with it. He added that the letter that “really gave me second thoughts” was from former Democrat Publisher Carrol Dadisman, who wrote: “In more than 50 years of various responsibilities for newspapers and editorial pages, I’ve defended a lot of editorial cartoons. But this one is indefensible.”

All in all, it’s not the most offensive cartoon of the year. Recently Steve Benson angered members of the US Marine Corps and Mike Luckovich, in an ill-timed cartoon, depicted the U.S. giving Al-Qaida lessons on torture. Those, in my opinion, are more indefensible than Lester’s cartoons.

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Comments 16

  1. The correct spelling of my name:

    MIKE LESTER

    Regards,
    ML

  2. The correct spelling of my name:

    MIKE LESTER

    Regards,
    ML

  4. Corrected. Thanks for the heads up.

  5. Uncle Sam sure does have big hands!

    And who is the quote from on the front page of that paper?

  6. Uncle Sam sure does have big hands!

    And who is the quote from on the front page of that paper?

  7. The cartoon is defensible in that free speech remains alive and mostly well in America. That said, seems like an odd stance for a journalist.

  8. The cartoon is defensible in that free speech remains alive and mostly well in America. That said, seems like an odd stance for a journalist.

  9. It’s a bit over the top just like most of the far right’s reaction to this non-issue. Bush himself publically announced that the U.S. was tracking the financial records of terrorist organizations months ago. I’d say far more treasonous would be Bush’s outing of the CIA nuclear espionage program in Iran by outing Valeris Plame. I must also add that Mike Lester sings a mean blues and is a great guy.

  10. It’s a bit over the top just like most of the far right’s reaction to this non-issue. Bush himself publically announced that the U.S. was tracking the financial records of terrorist organizations months ago. I’d say far more treasonous would be Bush’s outing of the CIA nuclear espionage program in Iran by outing Valeris Plame. I must also add that Mike Lester sings a mean blues and is a great guy.

  11. Speaking of non-issues, nothing tops the “outing” of Valerie Plame, who hadn’t worked under cover for years, in that category.

  12. Speaking of non-issues, nothing tops the “outing” of Valerie Plame, who hadn’t worked under cover for years, in that category.

  13. It’s already been well documented that Valerie Plame was a cia operative working for a fictional firm Brewster Jennings & Associates, which was subsequently acknowledged by the CIA as a front. The firm was covertly investigating the development of nuclear weapons in Iran. Plame was outed by the Bush administration as punishment for Plames husband exposing the false claims (one of several) that Iraq had attempted to aquire yellow cake uranium to reconstitute it’s nuclear program as a justification for the U.S. invasion. Even if she had not been involved under cover for several months, By outing Plame the entire program was compromised and in addition putting other covert operatives in danger. For shortsighted political payback, this administration is willing to compromise the security of the United States and its covert agents.

    The gang that couldn’t shoot straight unless it was aiming at their own feet.

  14. It’s already been well documented that Valerie Plame was a cia operative working for a fictional firm Brewster Jennings & Associates, which was subsequently acknowledged by the CIA as a front. The firm was covertly investigating the development of nuclear weapons in Iran. Plame was outed by the Bush administration as punishment for Plames husband exposing the false claims (one of several) that Iraq had attempted to aquire yellow cake uranium to reconstitute it’s nuclear program as a justification for the U.S. invasion. Even if she had not been involved under cover for several months, By outing Plame the entire program was compromised and in addition putting other covert operatives in danger. For shortsighted political payback, this administration is willing to compromise the security of the United States and its covert agents.

    The gang that couldn’t shoot straight unless it was aiming at their own feet.

  15. Give me a break. The Russians blew her cover in the 1990s, and all of her neighbors knew that she worked for the CIA.

    The evidence overwhelmingly points to the fact that Iraq did attempt to purchase yellowcake.

    The importance of the damage done by the exposure of the anti-terror programs (not directly, but by the reduced willingness of other countries to cooperate with the United States in the future) far exceeds Joe Wilson’s snit over getting caught lying (the bipartisan commission even acknowledged he didn’t tell the truth).

  16. Give me a break. The Russians blew her cover in the 1990s, and all of her neighbors knew that she worked for the CIA.

    The evidence overwhelmingly points to the fact that Iraq did attempt to purchase yellowcake.

    The importance of the damage done by the exposure of the anti-terror programs (not directly, but by the reduced willingness of other countries to cooperate with the United States in the future) far exceeds Joe Wilson’s snit over getting caught lying (the bipartisan commission even acknowledged he didn’t tell the truth).

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