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US Cartooning Tradition in Peril in Trump’s First Year Hank Kennedy ([link removed])


A Republican elephant reluctant to stand atop a tower of smears labeled McCarthyism

This Herblock cartoon (Washington Post, 3/29/50) is the first recorded use of the word "McCarthyism."

The political cartoon is of vast importance to the history of the United States. Benjamin Franklin’s “Join or Die” ([link removed]) made the case for unity to colonists wanting independence from Great Britain. Thomas Nast ([link removed]) exposed the corruption of Boss Tweed’s Tammany Hall; when Tweed attempted to escape justice, he was identified from a Nast cartoon. It was political cartoonist Herblock ([link removed]) who coined the term “McCarthyism” in a 1950 piece ([link removed]) attacking the Republican Party platform.

At a time of widespread corruption, official mendacity and general dirty dealings, it would behoove publishers and artists to aim as many satirical barbs as they can at the powerful. Yet the record of the first year of the new presidential administration shows that publishers are, for a variety of reasons, encouraging their artists to approach the president on bended knee.


** 'Craven censorship'
------------------------------------------------------------
Ann Telnaes' cartoon censored by Jeff Bezos' Washington Post

The Ann Telnaes cartoon censored by Jeff Bezos' Washington Post.

In January, the Washington Post spiked a cartoon by Pulitzer Prize–winning Ann Telnaes that criticized the supplicant attitude displayed by the paper’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos ([link removed]) , towards Donald Trump (FAIR.org, 1/7/25 ([link removed]) ). (Telnaes has been a longtime Trump critic, as shown by her 2018 book Trump’s ABCs ([link removed]) .)

She promptly resigned after the incident, the first time one of her pieces had been rejected over its subject. She had worked at the Post since 2008. In a Substack post (1/3/25 ([link removed]) ), Telnaes characterized the paper’s decision as reflecting a desire to “to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting.”

The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists (1/4/25 ([link removed]) ) condemned the Post’s decision as “political cowardice” and “craven censorship in bowing to a wannabe tyrant.” Led by Steve Brodner, other editorial cartoonists began posting their own versions of the suppressed piece in solidarity (Greater Quiet, 1/4/25 ([link removed]) , 1/7/25 ([link removed]) ; FAIR.org, 1/15/25 ([link removed]) ).


** 'The paper's got this ultra-liberal cartoonist'
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KAL cartoon of Trump as the emperor with no clothes

A KAL cartoon (7/19/25 ([link removed]) ) of the sort that got him dropped by the Baltimore Sun.

While Telnaes provides the most famous example of this trend, she is not the only one.

Kevin Kallaugher (pen name KAL) was a casualty of right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting Group's increasing control over US media. For 31 years, KAL contributed his award-winning cartoons to the Baltimore Sun. In 2024, David Smith of Sinclair—a frequent KAL target—purchased the paper ([link removed]) . Sinclair has used its ownership of hundreds of local news stations ([link removed]) to broadcast naked right-wing propaganda to millions of households. Smith himself (Guardian, 4/10/18 ([link removed]) ) told Donald Trump in a 2016 meeting, “We’re here to deliver your message.” Smith transformed the Sun into yet another forum ([link removed]) for that message.

KAL, on the other hand, felt no such obligation to deliver Trump’s message. He continued his regular mockery of the president and his administration. In December 2024, KAL was called in for a meeting with Smith. KAL claims Smith explained to him, “The problem is the paper’s got this ultra-liberal cartoonist.” He was told to restrict his satire to local issues or face termination. He refused, and was out at the Sun by the end of June (Baltimore Brew, 7/1/25 ([link removed]) ). KAL’s cartoons can still be found in the Economist and on Substack.


** Spurious claims of antisemitism
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The Wailing Wall: Starving child to Israel: "Pleease give me fooooood."

This got cartoonist Bob Whitmore temporarily pulled from Creative Loafing Tampa.

Florida cartoonist Bob Whitmore was the victim of spurious claims of antisemitism, the same kind that led to the firing of editor Tony Doris ([link removed]) of the Palm Beach Post (FAIR.org, 3/25/25 ([link removed]) ), and of cartoonist Mr. Fish (real name Dwayne Booth) from his 11-year teaching post at the University of Pennsylvania (FAIR.org, 7/9/25 ([link removed]) ). On July 31, Tampa’s alternative weekly Creative Loafing ran a cartoon ([link removed]) by Whitmore showing a starving Gazan child. He faces a high wall, topped with barbed wire. An Israeli flag flutters. “Pleease give me fooooood!” the child shouts. The caption reads “The Wailing Wall.”

After a mere two readers wrote in to complain that Whitmore’s cartoon was antisemitic, he was fired by Creative Loafing’s corporate owners. Whitmore maintained that “dissent against Israel’s actions in Gaza should not be considered antisemitism” (WMNF, 8/15/25 ([link removed]) ). He encouraged readers dissatisfied with the decision to complain to the local and corporate publishers. Enough readers protested the circumstances of Whitmore’s firing that he was reinstated within a few days (Daily Cartoonist, 8/18/25 ([link removed]) ). As of August 22, his work can once again be found in Creative Loafing.

While Whitmore’s rehiring is certainly good news, that he was fired in the first place is evidence of a distinct lack of support publishers and editors extend to any cartoons deemed controversial, particularly if they sympathize with the Palestinian people (FAIR.org, 3/27/25 ([link removed]) ).


** 'To better the community, not divide it'
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Judge: The Proper Way to Fly a Flag on Trump's Inauguration Day

A Lee Judge cartoon (Latrobe Bulletin, 1/16/25) made the Bulletin swear off political cartoons altogether.

Smaller newspapers have decided they can do without the controversy brought about by running political cartoons. In January, Pennsylvania’s Latrobe Bulletin (1/16/25) ran a syndicated cartoon by Lee Judge showing an upside down American flag flying above the White House, with the caption “The Proper Way to Fly a Flag on Trump’s Inauguration Day.” The US flag flown upside down is considered a universal sign of distress, one that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s house flew in apparent solidarity with January 6 rioters (New York Times, 5/16/24 ([link removed]) ).

Judge’s cartoons upset enough Bulletin readers that publisher Dave Cuddihy put out a statement announcing that no further political cartoons would run in the paper. Cuddihy (Latrobe Bulletin, 1/18/25 ([link removed]) ) declared:

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.... We will no longer be publishing political cartoons because we strive to better the community, not divide it.


** 'The day the laughter died'
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Looking for Peace

An Art Young cartoon (Masses, 12/1915).

Vermont’s family owned Caledonian Record (8/21/25 ([link removed]) ) likewise announced a cessation of all editorial cartoons in August. Publisher Todd Smith opined that “syndicated cartoons that can be perceived as partisan” are “a distraction from our core mission.” Eliminating the editorial page and syndicated cartoons were described as “keeping with [the paper’s] tradition.”

Under the headline “The Day the Laughter Died,” David Roth (Caledonian Record, 8/21/25 ([link removed]) ) was given the opportunity to present an alternative view defending the political cartoon and explaining its history. The decision to stop publishing political cartoons

is a loss for readers and a troubling manifestation of the disintegration of our civic conversation…. Political cartoons exist to provoke, to exaggerate and to question. They are not soft commentary; they are pointed caricatures.

When anti-war cartoonist Art Young ([link removed]) inveighed against World War I, the federal government charged him with sedition and forced him through two criminal trials. Both trials failed, although the magazine Young worked for ceased publication. Now it appears that such crude methods of shaping the opinions expressed through speech balloons and caricature are no longer necessary. The barons of the press seem to be perfectly capable of censoring themselves.

Upon being rehired, Bob Whitmore explained the importance of his stance. He told an interviewer: “I feel good about it. And standing up for ourselves as cartoonists. The power of the cartoon is phenomenal. And I’m proud to be a part of that” (Daily Cartoonist, 8/18/25 ([link removed]) ). Whitmore provides an example of how political cartoonists can stand up to power, rather than quaking in fear of it, so long as they are supported by editors and publishers.
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