→2024→09→20→Editorial cartooning→Henry Payne Faces Backlash Over Claims of Drawing “Racist” Cartoon of U.S. Rep. Tlaib – Updated
Editorial cartooning

Henry Payne Faces Backlash Over Claims of Drawing “Racist” Cartoon of U.S. Rep. Tlaib – Updated

1 minute 26 comments

Editorial cartoonist Henry Payne is being charged with drawing a “racist” cartoon that seems to imply that U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American, is a member of Hezbollah.

From The Detroit Metro Times:

A Detroit News auto industry reporter who moonlights as a political cartoonist is being criticized for appearing to imply that U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib is a member of Hezbollah, which critics have labeled as “racist,” “xenophobic,” “vile,” and “disgusting.”

The illustration depicts Tlaib at her desk next to the charred remains of an electronic device with a thought balloon reading, “Odd, my pager just exploded.” The cartoon is a reference to a recent attack against the Lebanese organization Hezbollah that is believed to have been orchestrated by Israel, in which beepers and walkie-talkies were modified to act as remote-controlled explosives.

Mediaite, “a trusted source for news on the intersection of media and politics,” also picked up the story:

The Detroit News* and National Review faced harsh backlash for publishing a political cartoon connecting Rep. Rashida Tlaib (R-MI) [sic – Tlaib is D-MI] to the pager bombs in Lebanon and Syria.

*Fact check: The Reuters’ story reports that,

“The Detroit News said it was not involved in [the cartoon’s] creation and distribution, and chose not to run it.”

Mediaite carries a number of tweets denouncing the cartoon, including from Tlaid herself.

IF the cartoon ever ran at Henry Payne’s GoComics page, it has been taken down now.

UPDATE September 21, 2024

Simon Shaykhet of WXYZ-TV from Detroit reports with comments from Payne and The Detroit News:

A cartoon that recently was published by the National Review is sparking outrage and backlash from community members and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

This cartoon was created by Henry Payne, who also happens to be a Detroit News auto columnist.

I did reach Payne by phone who told me “Jews are under an existential threat from Iran and its Hamas-Hezbollah proxies not seen since WWII … my cartoons for Andrews McNeel have been consistently critical of Rep. Tlaib’s lack of Congressional leadership in failing to support Israel’s battle for survival.”

The Detroit News tells me they do not plan to remove Payne or discipline him in any way for making the cartoon.

However, they say Payne was asked to discontinue use of the Detroit News email and agreed, when working for other publications, given that the Detroit News has nothing to do with creation of this cartoon.

As of this writing the cartoon remains on the National Review site.

Another Update September 22, 2024:

(Set up in a new post) Cartoonist Payne has replied to a Deadline Detroit request for a response about the cartoon by linking Rep. Rashida Tlaid to infamous Michigan segregationist Orville Hubbard.

Henry Edmondson Payne IV has been a cartoonist since the first half of the 1980s while attending Princeton. After college he was hired by The Charleston (W.V.) Daily Mail. In 1986 he moved to Washington D.C. as cartoonist and editor for Scripps Howard News Service, and getting his cartoons syndicated by the Scripps Howard-owned United Feature Syndicate in 1987. In 1999 Payne moved to Michigan and The Detroit News (until 1985 a Scripps newspaper) as cartoonist and columnist. His staff cartooning there lasted until 2013 when The News discontinued that job opting to go with syndicated cartoons; though the paper kept Payne on as columnist. (Henry had been an auto racing enthusiast with his father almost as long as he had been a cartoonist.) Payne continues to live in the suburbs of Detroit and is well aware of local politics.

to The West Virginia Encyclopedia for the Henry Payne career information

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Comments 26

  1. A smear and calumny any way you look at it. Disgusting and racist.

    1. Cartoon is spot on,also the reason first amend exits! Move on!

      1. Islamists are wildly hypocritical. That pig has no problem calling for genocide of the Jewish people but a question of her political affiliation is not allowed?

      2. It is justified and hilarious. Tlaib is clearly pro-hamas, pro-hezbollah, and pro-terror.

      3. Vote Henry Paul into Congress, he can take Tlaib’s position that’s a start, then we can work on replacing Omar and AOC, the other 2 left-wing radicals have already been eliminated.

    2. Tlaib is calling the cartoon racist?! The pot calling the kettle black.

    3. It was reported last year Tlaib may have ties to Hamas via her staffers. The Detroit media refuses to do their job and investigate.

      The cartoon makes sense.

  2. this is the kind of stuff political cartooning is for. It’s supposed to be nasty and mean. People on the other side of the issue are usually far, far worse.

  3. We all know Hamas Hezbollah tlaib Dearborn hamtramck Arab American news etc etc embrace virulent anti semitism and love for terrorism . They call it “ heroic resistance “ Americans unite boycott them all.

    1. You do realize that Arabs are also Semitic people, don’t you? And you do realize that bobby-trapping equipment like pagers and cell phones is illegal by international standards. It was also fairly stupid of Israel not to have any plan for follow-up in Lebanon while exposing their ability to do this.

      1. Very telling that you would defend a person of Tlaib’s character.Terrorizing terrorists isn’t terrorism. It’s long past time that Hezbollah, et al were given a healthy dose of their own medicine.

      2. Illegal? You mean like hamas executing hostages? Raping, torturing, and murdering woman and children? Launching thousands of rockets, missiles, and drones.
        [Ad hominem portion of comment edited out]

  4. The cartoon is as brilliant as the act itself! The cartoon exposes the threat within Congress and the attack exposes the terrorists on the streets and in the shops. Keep them both coming!

  5. Despite all the woke nonsense, this is still a free country. When did Palestinians become a race?

  6. Where did all of these trolls come from all of a sudden? I can’t imagine that they subscribe to this site. (They seem not to care that Palestine is not Lebanon, exposing a vitally flawed premise for Payne’s cartoon, or that neither of this site’s columnists would ever even remotely agree with their blathering viewpoints.)

    1. Jr. Tiefenbacher,
      Are you that naive? Politicians like Tlaib bring this kind of feedback on to themselves. Have you ever seen the signs she holds up in Congress, have you seen the rallies and speeches she gives using profound language, have you seen what she’s done to Michigan? This is only a fraction of what she’s created and doesn’t deserve to be a USA citizen.

  7. There is a very good reason that many of us who used to post comments on the Gocomics political cartoon site referred to certain classes of cartoons as “Paynefully Stupid”.

  8. Henry Payne has a long track record of drawing misogynistic, vindictive cartoons depicting women whose politics he disagrees with. His most recent cartoon features a particularly unattractive caricature of Taylor Swift, coupled with phony Swift lyrics and song titles unrelated to her actual political statements. Payne is particularly obsessed with demeaning Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and plainly appears threatened by strong women.

  9. Israeli crimes against humanity must be severely punished or there is no hope for a civilized planet. They have the exclusive right to Palestine after what? 2000 years? How preposterous.

    1. You have it backwards. It’s extremists of Hamas and other Arab terrorist groups that have demanded exclusive right to the ancient Jewish homeland and has sought to kick the Jews out via horrendous acts of terror–true crimes against humanity. They have rejected every proposal to divide the land, including the original creation of Israel mandated by the UN.

  10. Pretty sure she is D-MI, not R.

    1. Thanks Mary. I have made two corrections to that short Mediaite excerpt.

  11. Wonderful!! Let us give Israel and its supporters a standing ovation!!
    Let us hear it for war crimes!!
    This is not their first nor their last.
    A sad sad situation.

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