Editorial cartoonists: a dying breed

[n2doc]

The power of their work is clear. So why are more newspapers going without them?
By ON THE MEDIA, JAMES RAINEY
July 17, 2008
I had already been talking to some of America's best editorial cartoonists about the enduring power of a single well-drawn image when the New Yorker delivered the proof with megaton force -- this week's cover depicting that closet jihadist, Barack Obama.

Put a turban on the senator from Illinois, dress his wife up in camo and an assault rifle, and you get the whole country talking. Some folks were outraged at the elite magazine's insensitivity; others thrilled at the satiric skewering of an absurd myth.

Newspaper publishers and editors take note: Even in that wildly divided audience, no one doubted the cartoon's power to engage and provoke.

Because cartoonists have such a potent ability to excite, infuriate, perplex and amuse, you would think that newspapers -- struggling to maintain audiences in the Internet Age -- might lovingly nurture them.

Instead, cartoonists are disappearing like brunet anchors at Fox News -- about a hundred are scratching out a living today, compared with about double that a couple of decades ago. And this presidential election cycle has been less engaging for their absence.

More:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-onthemedia17-2008jul17,0,5884635.story


IMHO, it is all because the cartoonists are one of the last remaining places in the MSM where truth is spoken to power. And they hate that.

[Muttocracy]

1. your HO is probably right - that and the nationalization of papers

less market for cartoons on local/state topics.

[SteppingRazor]

2. Actually, it has nothing to do with "truth to power." It's money and media consolidation.

Say you own 50 newspapers, and every one of them has its own editorial cartoonist.

Now, does that make sense, or does it make more sense to fire 49 of them and have all the papers run the work of one person?

Obviously, the amount of voices in the media suffers as a result, but you're already into media consolidation just based on all those papers you own, so it's not like you really care about that. What you do care about is that you just saved having to pay 49 salaries.

[n2doc]

5. Well I can't imagine the RW owners are happy with a toon like this:

[SteppingRazor]

7. They're perfectly happy with it if it gets people to buy papers.

Believe me, at this point, newspaper ownership is happy with ANYTHING that gets people to buy papers.

[Bozita]

9. Hey, that's my dentist's BIL. He quit his job in '03 at the Post-Dispatch over editorial interferenc

http://www.stlbeacon.org/issues_politics/nation/sherffius_wins_herblock_prize

Sherffius wins Herblock Prize
Last Updated ( Friday, 23 May 2008 )
The works of former Post-Dispatch editorial cartoonist "kick you in the gut."
By Dave Astor

Published: February 20, 2008 at editorandpublisher.com


NEW YORK John Sherffius has won the 2008 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning, the Herb Block Foundation (HBF) announced this afternoon.

Sherffius -- who'll get a $10,000 tax-free award -- does his cartoons for the Boulder, Col., Daily Camera and Copley News Service. He'll receive the prize during a March 18 ceremony at the Library of Congress, where NBC-TV's Tim Russert will deliver the 2008 Herblock Lecture.

The prize went to Sherffius for a package of cartoons that chronicled the Bush Administration over the past year. Included were drawings about subjects such as torture, wiretapping, the escalation of the war in Iraq, and the administration's approach to global warming.

"John's work exemplifies the best the art of editorial cartooning has to offer," said Jim Morin, one of this year's judges, in a statement. "Through a potent combination of excellent drawing technique, striking original imagery, and passionate conviction, his cartoons kick you in the gut."

more...

[NightWatcher]

3. I like Mike Luckovich

[mdmc]

4. Like Obama is likely to wear a diaper.

:)

[n2doc]

6. Naw, only RW Senators from Louisiana do!

[greenman3610]

8. newspapers are blander,

and cartoonists have been getting more and more
restricted for 20 + years.
Cartoon strips have been almost totally denatured of any
bold content, Doonesbury being the exception that
most editors would love to get rid of - it gives them
headaches.
That said, satire is not dead, but the place that people go for it is
"The Daily Show", and "Colbert" - as well as
a number of internet sources.
Younger people simply do not read newspapers.
I remember a speech that Berke Breathed gave some
15 years ago talking about how he felt political
cartoons simply didn't have an impact any more.

The quote by Steve Kelly is revealling:
"More than a dozen cartoonists who responded to my e-mail last week said they did not have a professional preference in the Obama-McCain showdown.

"McCain's reputed explosive temper is a tantalizing prospect," said Steve Kelley of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, "as is Obama's abiding belief that there is no problem so simple that government can't find a way to waste enormous resources failing to fix it."
A lot of cartoonists have the journalists disease that they are
amoral and don't give a rats ass if the country goes to hell
as long as they have something to write about.
One reason John Stewart is successful is that he
clearly does care.

The difficulty is that it is harder and harder
for quirky individuals or regional viewpoints to
make a dent, or a living, in this art form.