Obey In Advance

Political cartoonists are in trouble

A former client in Florida who dropped my work at the end of 2024 shared this email from one of their subscribers yesterday.

The reader wrote to the paper, “What has happened with Clay Jones??? He is soooo good and on point??”

The editor replied, “We agree, and we have been proud to display Clay's work the last seven years. However, with the reelection of someone who has vilified the Fourth Estate as "the enemy of the people," we have taken Falstaff's advice ("Discretion is the better part of valor") and discontinued any content that is not germane to (edited out so readers won't go after them) County.
The erosion of one of the most sacred freedoms in the First Amendment will begin again in earnest on Monday, and America will not be the better for it. We adhere to the sage advice: "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."
Since you have been a long admirer of Clay's work, you might be interested to know that Clay has a Substack account (claytoonz.substack.com), where for a small subscription price you can view all of his cartoons and read his excellent blog. I think you would enjoy this very much.”

I appreciate the editor passing along my Substack, and he’s the only client since I created my syndicate a decade ago who voluntarily raised my rates without my asking him. He’s a good guy who’s written many endorsement letters to use for contest entries. I hate that I lost him as a client.

I disagree with dropping my service because of Trump, but I do understand that a lot of local publications want to focus only on local issues. I freelance for one of them right here in Fredericksburg. I also understand that some editors don’t want to be murdered by a MAGAt as several received death threats in 2016 for not endorsing Donald Trump.

I shared the letter on Facebook and a lot of people lambasted the editor for being afraid of Donald Trump. One of the people who criticized him is a retired editor from my last employer who once killed our caption contest because ONE reader called and complained, even before the cartoon had a caption. When that happened, I asked if they could at least wait until the cartoon is finished before they get pissed off? This was between the Tea Party being created and MAGA.

And another attack on political cartoonists: The Latrobe Bulletin newspaper in Pennsylvania has decided that political cartoons have “run their course” and will not be publishing them anymore.

My friend and colleague, Jack Ohman, jumped on this before I could, and as the recent former president of our cartoonist association and a 40-year veteran of this biz, his viewpoint is worth reading (some of you, or most, have probably already read it as we share a lot of subscribers).

Publisher Dave Cuddihy, a true cockwomble if there ever was one, apologized for running an “offensive” cartoon by Lee Judge, who is a great cartoonist, but the cartoon was hardly offensive.

Seriously? If this gets you clutching your pearls, then you’re in the wrong business, Mr. Cuddihy.

Cuddihy wrote, “We apologize today for letting such an offensive political cartoon slip through our editorial process and into our Editorial page of Volume 123 - Issue No. 20, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.
While political cartoons have run in newspapers, including the Latrobe Bulletin, for many years; this is a final example of how we feel they have run their course.
As Americans we respect rights and views on all sides, however, we assure you, as your community newspaper this image does not reflect our viewpoint.”

If you’re one of the fuckers who sent me a meme today, this is why I yelled at you (“But it’s funny”). Here, an actual newspaper publisher is saying that what I’ve spent my entire adult life on has “run its course.” A lot of people, even in the news business, believe memes should replace political cartoons, and I have an entirely separate rant on that bullshit which you’ll have to hear someday.

Political cartoons don’t have to reflect a newspaper’s viewpoint. When a newspaper publishes a cartoon, it should only represent the cartoonist’s viewpoint. Does every column have to represent a newspaper’s viewpoint? My former employer, The Free Lance-Star, did believe every single one of my cartoons was supposed to speak for the newspaper which led to my having a very difficult career for 14 years.

Editors should select cartoons based on quality, not whether or not it goose steps along with them.

I think it was Kathleen Parker who wrote, “Newspapers should hire interesting people and leave them alone.” I can assure you that Lee Judge is one of the most interesting people you could ever talk to.

I’m also wondering how the publisher came to the conclusion that the cartoon was offensive. Obviously, it was after it was published, but who called him? Back in the day, we didn’t sweat complaints from readers.

For me, angry readers have always been a result of drawing a good cartoon. Even though people like to say it’s my job to offend readers, it’s really not and it’s not my goal. Angering readers is a byproduct of my cartoons. I don’t shy away from pissing off readers, and I do love my hate mail, but making people angry isn’t my purpose. I do consider making a MAGAt pop a blood vessel a bonus.

After today, there will be more pressure for newspapers and outlets to cancel us. They will demand that there be no insubordination and only praise for Emperor Trump.

With newspapers canceling cartoons before Trump even took the oath, some people are calling this obeying in advance, but it’s not new.

Several years ago, The New York Times canceled all political cartoons over one caricature of Benjamin Netanyahu, drawn by Portuguese cartoonist António Moreira Antunes.

Sure, the cartoon is anti-Semitic, but it’s the newspaper’s fault for running it. the cartoonist didn’t force you to publish it, but only if we could. Canceling all cartoons says the newspaper doesn’t trust its staff to select cartoons. It’s not the fault of all the other political cartoonists in the world that the editors who select cartoons are morons. This applies to the editor in Latrobe, famous for Arnold Palmer and his huge penis.

Who is David Cuddihy to decide that political cartoons have “run their course?” Being a publisher, a newspaper owner, or both means cartoons run at your discretion, but Cuddihy knows they’re the most popular feature on his opinion page, and other publishers know this too, including Gannett which killed opinion pages for all the newspapers in its chain, including USA Today. Cuddihy has never written anything that got read more than a cartoon published next to it.

The newspaper industry is killing us through slow death, but I expect that to speed up with Trump in office and newspaper owners like Jeff Bezos obeying in advance. Even the Pulitzer Prizes are trying to eliminate us, as they took our contest division away and created a new one called “illustrated reporting and commentary,” which means that even the USA Today weather map is technically qualified to win a Pulitzer Prize. It probably doesn’t help us that the last political cartoonist to win a Pulitzer Prize (2017) was arrested last week for possessing child porn.

I assure you that the most danger your child is in from a political cartoonist is that they’ll learn sarcasm, irony, ingenuity, and how to think for themselves (unless they’re only reading MAGAt cartoonists which could be considered child abuse. Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be MAGAts).

I’m not done:

Another editor, also in Florida, sent me this letter he received today, on Trump’s inauguration which I’m sure is just a coinkydink:

“Good morning, I am writing to lodge a complaint against your editor and cartoonist. The constant cartoon depictions of our President are disgusting, your cartoonist Clay Jones is obviously a far-left unhinged employee. Your editor who is placing his vile work on your publication is questionable as well. For the last 4 years your organization has covered up for a very corrupt administration, after going out of your way to report mostly lies the previous four years during the Trump administration. This last election the majority of Americans along with almost all of Boca Raton voted for President Trump. Its time you check your biases at the door and get back to journalism. Thanks for your time.”

In the past, this publisher asked me to offer “balance” in my work, which I rejected. He also asked me to find him a Trumper cartoonist so he could provide that balance, and it seemed he was pressuring me to do this or I’d lose his publication as a client. I asked another syndicate to talk to him and show him what they offer, at the risk of him liking their package and canceling me altogether.

I think this letter indicates that the MAGAt cartoon haters are just getting warmed up. Let me add that I’ve always challenged right-wing goons to find the “lies” my cartoons are based on.

And then: This morning, I got a text from the lady I’ve been, or was, hanging out with saying that I drew Trump “particularly” fat in Trump/SnoopDogg cartoon, which may have been her criticism. She mentioned it twice but I’m not sure if she was being critical as she’s very liberal but she does like to browbeat me a lot.

At least I didn’t get into as much trouble as that Portuguese cartoonist got for his Bibi/Dog caricature, though this may be entering me into a brand new dry spell.

To sum up, if you want to help a political cartoonist out, while our market is shrinking and our readership is rising, you can become a paid subscriber to a cartoonist’s Substack…oh, hey, like this one. Thank you!