Editor and Publisher recently asked a couple of young editors for their thoughts on the recent firings of editorial cartoonists by a few newspapers.
Firing editorial cartoonists for their controversial art not only violates their right to free speech, but it robs the public of the full story.
What newspapers choose to publish, or not to publish, matters greatly. When one voice is censored, a side of the story, a piece of the puzzle, goes missing. It is the job of the media to present the truth, to share all voices and stories, even those that some individuals will disagree with.
Because taste is really a nebulous thing, and it partially goes against the purpose of journalism. Journalists split the difference between articles people enjoy and articles that will garner a negative reaction. The latter are the information people don’t necessarily want to know, but the stuff they need to know.
So why is it we suddenly look at editorial cartoons as if they were somehow different from the above?