Editor believes editorial cartoons are for amusement only

Hi, I'm Stephanie McMillan, creator of the comic strip "Minimum Security" and the editorial cartoon "Code Green" (you can check them out at stephaniemcmillan.org).

Ted has invited me to contribute to his blog. Thank you Ted! Here's my first entry:

Editor & Publisher has an article about some people protesting an offensive cartoon. That's great -- I love protests against offensive things.

But this sentence gave me the chills:

"Newsday issued a statement saying,'we expect the cartoons we publish, many of which are nationally syndicated, to amuse, stir and entertain, but never to offend'."

Wow. What an extraordinary, horrifying statement. I loathe the cartoon, but that's not the point -- this statement makes it clear that the trend toward blandifying papers has not only not slowed, but that editors freely admit that they're okay with it. They're afraid of their readers and afraid of editorializing. This fear of offending anyone is stultifying and so dangerous. Does anyone still think we live in a free society?

I think that as the economic, environmental and other crises increasingly worsen, Americans will become more polarized (that's already happening) and will demand sharper opinions in all areas of the culture. We see the success of those who start to speak out more openly on tv and online. I hope newspaper editors start to understand this emerging trend and figure out that their readers want controversy and strong opinions, not bland meaninglessness.

The whole *purpose* of editorial cartoons is to enlighten, expose, inspire and offend! NOT to "amuse and entertain." Those are secondary. As Mike Lester (a cartoonist who often seriously offends me) correctly stated, non-offensive cartoons "are called greeting cards."

My Letter to Newsweek

To the Editor:

There's a saying among political cartoonists: "I thought my cartoon was good. But then it appeared in Newsweek."

Once again, your annual "The Year in Cartoons" collection of editorial cartoons highlights your magazine's long-running war on political humor. Its title also violates truth-in-advertising laws. Your selection is incredibly narrow, focusing only editorial cartoons without a political point of view drawn by about a half dozen working editorial cartoonists. "The Year of the Blandest Cartoons By Six Guys" would be more like it.

Newsweek's readers deserve to know that there are hundreds of editorial cartoonists in the United States. They have as many drawing styles and political viewpoints as you can imagine. The vast majority of them are hard-hitting, highly opinionated and viciously partisan. They are pit bulls (mostly without lipstick, though there are amazing women cartoonists too), not the teacup poodles exhibited in your misleadingly-titled round-up.

In a universe of inspired and inspiring political cartoons, you managed to find the absolute bottom of the barrel. Are you afraid of actual opinions? Or do you just have bad taste? Either way, you ignored all the good stuff—including by the cartoonists whose work you included, all of whom have far more important, riskier and funnier work in their 2008 portfolio that you chose to pass up. A computer-generated randomizer would have picked smarter cartoons.

Ted Rall
President, American Association of American Editorial Cartoonists

Ted Rall is Finalist in Lambda Legal Cartoon Award; Online Voting Open to Public
Posted by Mikhaela Reid

Cartoonist Mikhaela Reid here. I'm supposed to be one of Ted's guest bloggers, but I've been ill with strep my entire guest blog tenure so far and won't be posting until I get better.

However, I wanted to quickly let everyone know that Ted's cartoon "Explaining the Supreme Court" is one of five finalists in Lambda Legal's Life Without Fair Courts cartoon contest. Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.

Check out all the finalists and cast your vote.

Here's the contest info:

Lambda Legal has teamed up with Prism Comics (an organization for the LGBT graphic artist community), and media sponsor, The Advocate, to launch a nationwide contest to find the best representation of what life would look like without fair courts. First prize in the contest is exposure in The Advocate and on Advocate.com. Second and third prize include donated shopping sprees from Diamond Comics Distributors. Contest judges include Joan Hilty, Editor at DC Comics; Phil Jimenez, Freelance Illustrator and Comic Book Artist; Mikhaela Reid, creator of the original series, Life Without Fair Courts; and George Stoll, Art Director for The Advocate.

(Disclaimer: I was on the panel of judges who picked the finalists since I drew the original "Life Without Fair Courts" series that came before the contest, so I can't take sides, but figured Ted's fans should know about the contest since he's trekking through the Stans and unable to post about this himself.)