When Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette was once asked whether his drawings ever
made a difference, he deadpanned: "Yes, I ended the Vietnam War."
Marlette, to set the record straight, didn't end the Vietnam War - at least not by himself.
But editorial cartoonists helped capture the war's folly with often searing imagery. For instance, few articles
or photographs of the war are as memorable as David Levine's drawing of President Lyndon Johnson lifting
his shirt to reveal a gallbladder scar shaped like Vietnam.
Johnson, who once emerged from surgery to show reporters and photographers his gallbladder scar, was
driven from office by his failure to manage the Vietnam War. With brilliant juxtaposition, Levine captured LBJ's
legacy with no words in a way that transcended written work.
When editorial cartoonists are at their best, they're like switchblades: simple and to the point; they cut deeply
and leave an impression. Years after the Washington Post's Herbert Block - or Herblock as he signed his
cartoons - portrayed a stubbly-faced Richard Nixon climbing out of a sewer, Nixon said: "I have to erase the
Herblock image."
Herblock created the term "McCarthyism" to represent the anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s Red Scare.
By associating the abuses of the Red Scare with U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Herblock helped turn public
opinion against the demagogue, the far right and their assault on our civil liberties. In one Herblock drawing,
a man labeled "hysteria" and carrying a bucket filled with water, is climbs a ladder to extinguish the Statue of
Liberty's flame.
By starkly uncovering the naked truths of our emperors, cartoonists have contributed to the political and
social fabric of America since Benjamin Franklin called for a united front against England in his crude drawing,
"Join, or Die." In 1988, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist recognized the value of editorial
cartoons. "Despite their sometimes caustic nature, graphic depictions and satirical cartoons have played a
prominent role in public and political debate," Rehnquist said, adding: "From the viewpoint of history it is
clear that our political discourse would have been considerably poorer without (editorial cartoons)."
But these are bad times for editorial cartoonists, who have seen their numbers fall precipitously. In the last
few weeks, the Tribune Company, which owns a number of newspapers, laid off Pulitzer-winning cartoonist
Michael Ramirez from the Los Angeles Times. Kevin Kallaugher, of the Baltimore Sun, himself facing a layoff
by the Tribune Company, accepted a buyout.
On Monday, December 12, dozens of editorial cartoonists will participate in what the Association of American
Editorial Cartoonists calls "Black Ink Monday." Their drawings will protest both the state of the art and the
state of the newspaper industry, which is being weakened by corporate downsizing.
Media companies - like the Tribune - are cutting newspaper staffs for higher profits. While this puts more
money in the pockets of a few, it puts the newspaper industry at risk - and a weakened newspaper industry
puts our democracy at risk. A free and vigorous press not only strengthens a democracy, it is necessary for a
democracy. Nobody takes America's tradition of free expression more personally than editorial cartoonists.
William M. Tweed, the ignominious political boss of the 1870s, once summarized the simple potency of
editorial cartoons by reportedly saying: "I don't care what they print about me. Most of my constituents can't
read. But them damn pictures!" Cartoonist Thomas Nast helped bring Tweed to justice with drawings that
included "The Brain," which showed Tweed's body with a bag of money for a head.
During World War I, cartoonists produced two drawings that represent diametrically different viewpoints of
war - James Montgomery Flagg's Uncle Sam commanding: "I Want You," which remains America's strongest
recruiting tool, and Robert Minor's timeless indictment of war, "At Last a Perfect Soldier," which shows a
military examiner salivating over a hulking, headless soldier.
During World War II, cartoonist Bill Mauldin poignantly captured the solder's life in his "Willie and Joe" strip. In
today's newspapers, Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" character B.D., who lost a leg in the Iraq war, struggles
with pain - physical, mental and emotional - that evocatively resonates with tens of thousands of soldiers and
their families
From Nast to Herblock to the present, the best editorial cartoonists had editors who both respected their
work but also respected the vital role that social criticism plays in American society. These editors knew that
having a staff editorial cartoonist brought something to the newspaper's pages that transcended the written
word.
H.L. Mencken, the venerable editor of the Baltimore Sun, once said: "Give me a good cartoonist and I can
throw out half the editorial staff." Mencken's cartoonist, Edmund Duffy, was fearless in condemning the Ku
Klux Klan's influence in Baltimore in the 1920s and early 1930s. After one lynching, Duffy drew a black man
dangling from a rope accompanied by the state song, "Maryland, My Maryland!" Such an image contributed to
the state passing an anti-lynching law.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Chicago Tribune had three editorial cartoonists on staff, including two
Pulitzer winners, Jeff MacNelly and Dick Locher. James Squires, who was then the newspaper's editor,
admitted that editorial cartoons - especially those drawn by MacNelly - caused him more grief than all of the
words written by all of his reporters in a year.
And yet Squires insisted that he was committed to giving MacNelly as much freedom as possible. Why?
"Because the political satires of Jeff MacNelly and those of a handful of similarly talented newspaper
cartoonists represent the most incisive and effective form of commentary known to man and one as vital to
the exercise of free speech and open debate as any words that ever appeared on such pages," Squires said.
"To censor them would be a definite disservice to art, and a probable danger to democracy."
Squires has been gone from the Tribune for a long time and the newspaper now has no cartoonists on staff.
Neither does the Baltimore Sun. Both newspapers are under the management of the Tribune Company.
A century ago, newspaper editors, in an attempt to increase circulation and to create a sense of identity, hired
editorial cartoonists and put their work on Page 1. Today, as newspapers desperately search for both readers
and an identity, they are getting rid of cartoonists. Newspapers who say they can't afford a staff editorial
cartoonist have it wrong. They can't afford to not have an editorial cartoonist.
Chris Lamb, an associate professor of Media Studies at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC, is the author
of Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons. He can be reached at lambc@cofc.edu
made a difference, he deadpanned: "Yes, I ended the Vietnam War."
Marlette, to set the record straight, didn't end the Vietnam War - at least not by himself.
But editorial cartoonists helped capture the war's folly with often searing imagery. For instance, few articles
or photographs of the war are as memorable as David Levine's drawing of President Lyndon Johnson lifting
his shirt to reveal a gallbladder scar shaped like Vietnam.
Johnson, who once emerged from surgery to show reporters and photographers his gallbladder scar, was
driven from office by his failure to manage the Vietnam War. With brilliant juxtaposition, Levine captured LBJ's
legacy with no words in a way that transcended written work.
When editorial cartoonists are at their best, they're like switchblades: simple and to the point; they cut deeply
and leave an impression. Years after the Washington Post's Herbert Block - or Herblock as he signed his
cartoons - portrayed a stubbly-faced Richard Nixon climbing out of a sewer, Nixon said: "I have to erase the
Herblock image."
Herblock created the term "McCarthyism" to represent the anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s Red Scare.
By associating the abuses of the Red Scare with U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Herblock helped turn public
opinion against the demagogue, the far right and their assault on our civil liberties. In one Herblock drawing,
a man labeled "hysteria" and carrying a bucket filled with water, is climbs a ladder to extinguish the Statue of
Liberty's flame.
By starkly uncovering the naked truths of our emperors, cartoonists have contributed to the political and
social fabric of America since Benjamin Franklin called for a united front against England in his crude drawing,
"Join, or Die." In 1988, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist recognized the value of editorial
cartoons. "Despite their sometimes caustic nature, graphic depictions and satirical cartoons have played a
prominent role in public and political debate," Rehnquist said, adding: "From the viewpoint of history it is
clear that our political discourse would have been considerably poorer without (editorial cartoons)."
But these are bad times for editorial cartoonists, who have seen their numbers fall precipitously. In the last
few weeks, the Tribune Company, which owns a number of newspapers, laid off Pulitzer-winning cartoonist
Michael Ramirez from the Los Angeles Times. Kevin Kallaugher, of the Baltimore Sun, himself facing a layoff
by the Tribune Company, accepted a buyout.
On Monday, December 12, dozens of editorial cartoonists will participate in what the Association of American
Editorial Cartoonists calls "Black Ink Monday." Their drawings will protest both the state of the art and the
state of the newspaper industry, which is being weakened by corporate downsizing.
Media companies - like the Tribune - are cutting newspaper staffs for higher profits. While this puts more
money in the pockets of a few, it puts the newspaper industry at risk - and a weakened newspaper industry
puts our democracy at risk. A free and vigorous press not only strengthens a democracy, it is necessary for a
democracy. Nobody takes America's tradition of free expression more personally than editorial cartoonists.
William M. Tweed, the ignominious political boss of the 1870s, once summarized the simple potency of
editorial cartoons by reportedly saying: "I don't care what they print about me. Most of my constituents can't
read. But them damn pictures!" Cartoonist Thomas Nast helped bring Tweed to justice with drawings that
included "The Brain," which showed Tweed's body with a bag of money for a head.
During World War I, cartoonists produced two drawings that represent diametrically different viewpoints of
war - James Montgomery Flagg's Uncle Sam commanding: "I Want You," which remains America's strongest
recruiting tool, and Robert Minor's timeless indictment of war, "At Last a Perfect Soldier," which shows a
military examiner salivating over a hulking, headless soldier.
During World War II, cartoonist Bill Mauldin poignantly captured the solder's life in his "Willie and Joe" strip. In
today's newspapers, Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" character B.D., who lost a leg in the Iraq war, struggles
with pain - physical, mental and emotional - that evocatively resonates with tens of thousands of soldiers and
their families
From Nast to Herblock to the present, the best editorial cartoonists had editors who both respected their
work but also respected the vital role that social criticism plays in American society. These editors knew that
having a staff editorial cartoonist brought something to the newspaper's pages that transcended the written
word.
H.L. Mencken, the venerable editor of the Baltimore Sun, once said: "Give me a good cartoonist and I can
throw out half the editorial staff." Mencken's cartoonist, Edmund Duffy, was fearless in condemning the Ku
Klux Klan's influence in Baltimore in the 1920s and early 1930s. After one lynching, Duffy drew a black man
dangling from a rope accompanied by the state song, "Maryland, My Maryland!" Such an image contributed to
the state passing an anti-lynching law.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Chicago Tribune had three editorial cartoonists on staff, including two
Pulitzer winners, Jeff MacNelly and Dick Locher. James Squires, who was then the newspaper's editor,
admitted that editorial cartoons - especially those drawn by MacNelly - caused him more grief than all of the
words written by all of his reporters in a year.
And yet Squires insisted that he was committed to giving MacNelly as much freedom as possible. Why?
"Because the political satires of Jeff MacNelly and those of a handful of similarly talented newspaper
cartoonists represent the most incisive and effective form of commentary known to man and one as vital to
the exercise of free speech and open debate as any words that ever appeared on such pages," Squires said.
"To censor them would be a definite disservice to art, and a probable danger to democracy."
Squires has been gone from the Tribune for a long time and the newspaper now has no cartoonists on staff.
Neither does the Baltimore Sun. Both newspapers are under the management of the Tribune Company.
A century ago, newspaper editors, in an attempt to increase circulation and to create a sense of identity, hired
editorial cartoonists and put their work on Page 1. Today, as newspapers desperately search for both readers
and an identity, they are getting rid of cartoonists. Newspapers who say they can't afford a staff editorial
cartoonist have it wrong. They can't afford to not have an editorial cartoonist.
Chris Lamb, an associate professor of Media Studies at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC, is the author
of Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons. He can be reached at lambc@cofc.edu
| In Defense of Editorial Cartooning BY Chris Lamb -- Caglecartoons.com December 2005 |
