It took a nudge from CEO Steve Jobs himself, but today Apple approved Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Fiore’s NewsToon app for the App store. The app was earlier rejected back in December citing that it ridiculed public figures. It is described as:
From Pulitzer Prize-winning political animator, Mark Fiore, comes NewsToons, an automatically-updating collection of bite-sized satire. Political cartoons have never been this funny, accessible and revealing!
What you’ll get:
1. Automatically-updating political animation produced specifically for an online world.
2. Ability to dig deeper into the cartoon and see what news stories, events and facts inspired each animation.
3. NewsToons allows you to see Fiore’s Flash cartoons on an iPhone – with no advertising!
The app costs $.99 and with no advertising, I say that’s money well spent.
UPDATE: I asked Mark if he had to pull out any of the cartoons that were deemed objectionable before. He tells me he didn’t make any changes – just resubmitted.
Question is: did Mark have to back off and “tone it down” as per Apple’s ridiculous request last week, or is it an unfettered product?
He tells me he didn’t remove any of the “objectionable” material.
Good news then!
This is a sad day for those who have dedicated their lives to protecting our public figures from ridicule.
This is good, but why did it have to go all the way to Jobs for reversal? What I’m wondering now is, what format are the cartoons? They can’t be in Flash, because Jobs doesn’t allow it.
Further proof of my often shared point that most people do NOT know what a cartoon is.
Our country’s belief in freedom of expression has diminished to the point that the editorial cartoonists actual job description is now reason for dismissal, denouncing and death threats.
Now even South Park is being censored…..
Just sick ‘n’ sad