Patterico's Pontifications

6/11/2019

New York Times: No More Political Cartoons

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:45 am



[guest post by Dana]

Back in April I posted about a cartoon published in the international edition of the New York Times that depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dachshund wearing a Star of David collar, leading a blind President Trump, who holds a leash and wears a yarmulke. The cartoon was widely condemned, and the publication eventually apologized for running it. The decision to publish the cartoon was blamed on a lack of editorial oversight.

The New York Times has now announced that the publication will be doing away with all political cartoons in their international edition (the national edition does not print political cartoons):

Untitled

This seems like an extreme reaction. While the NYT may have been considering doing away with political cartoons before the Netanyahu cartoon kerfuffle, given that the decision comes so soon after having to apologize for its publication, it’s reasonable to assume that it tipped the scales. But here’s the thing, if the Netanyahu cartoon was run because of a decision made by “a production editor who did not recognize its anti-Semitism,” wouldn’t the solution be for the NYT to hire more experienced and informed editors who could provide the necessary oversight? Giving the NYT the benefit of the doubt here, I’ll ask, why is it so difficult for a leading publication to avoid the appearance of peddling anti-Semitism that they have to throw the baby out with the bathwater?

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

12 Responses to “New York Times: No More Political Cartoons”

  1. Good morning.

    Dana (779465)

  2. They could never compete with The New Yorker, anyway. Or even Hagar the Horrible.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. More space for advertising.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  4. the vokischer shouldn’t be their model of artistry

    https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1138223473413763072

    narciso (d1f714)

  5. There was a second cartoon I think before the New York Times made the decision to not run any more political cartoons. The deciaion not run run any more political cartoons (rather than, mabe
    (not trusting anyone not to run any ones they should not run)

    This is old news, by the way. This happened at the end of April.

    You ran a few posts avout this:

    https://patterico.com/2019/04/28/new-york-times-were-sure-sorry-about-publishing-that-anti-semitic-cartoon/

    While at first you might think it was designed to illustrate some article, it had no connection with anything, nor was it set aside in a space for cartoons.

    The second cartoon was of Netanyahu as Moses coming down from the mountain, and I think he’s also drawn to look like the Grim Reaper, and instead of tablets he is holding a stick (remember Moses had a staff) or it could be what the Grim Reaper carries except that it is.. a selfie stick.

    Some people thought the first one wasn’t anti-semitic – just anti-Netanyahu, and I noticed that the only really specifically Jewish symbolism that didn’t belong
    was Trump wearing a black velvet yarmulke, and I thought the cartoonist was just throwing everything into it, but I’m inclined now to think this whole thing was anti-semitic, and designed for the Arab market.

    It was all apropos of nothing and had no words.

    I think the message was not:

    “Netanyahu is leading Trump around with regard to Israel, or the Middle East in general or Iran.”

    But

    “Netanyahu is leading Trump around with regard to everything . ”

    And that is most definitely anti-semitic. It was designed to fit in with editorial antisemitism.

    The New York Times thought that with the cartoons originating in democratic European ccountires there could be nothing really wrong with them, but that was not true.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  6. Since the NYT people have no useful skills that don’t involve manipulating the meaning of words, they’ve lost all ability to judge whether or not an image is absolutely transparent propaganda.

    With the rampant de-skilling and descent into partisan copywriting in the industry, they may soon have to drop all articles and just write headlines and chyrons.

    Captain Strong (e104a0)

  7. I thought the New York Times was still running political cartoons in its Sunday Weelk in AReview (now just called Review) section but I checked and it isn’t.

    You can get some in National Review and I think The Week, and in some local weekly newspapers herer (the free) paper Jewish Home and (not free) Yated Ne’eman.

    The New Yorker contains different kinds of cartoons.

    The New York Post and the daily News have cartoons.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  8. Political cartoons are dangerous and the best are not politically correct. The best was the napalmed little vietnames girl running down the road with the world trade centers crashing down behind her.

    lany (1f92d8)

  9. More experienced and informed editors, you say? *SNICKERSNORT*

    Gryph (08c844)

  10. 2. The New Yorker was the original home of Charles Addams’ single-panel gags, which gave rise to the franchise now known as “The Addams Family.”

    Gryph (08c844)

  11. I checked. “ The Week ” doesn’t seem to print any political
    cartoons. I think they are in some magazine besides National Review.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)


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