Where to start? It seems like new developments about domestic spying are coming every hour. Before we get ahead of ourselves, here’s a good AP piece which will give you some background about how we got to this point. Glenn Greenwald & Ewen MacAskill from The Guardian broke the story and revealed the identity of the whistleblower, Edward Snowden while Barton Gellman & Laura Poitrus of The Washington Post had the breaking story of the metadata mining program, “PRISM”. Here’s the link to my take on metadata gathering.
Category: free speech
Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary
For almost 2 months in 1989 tens of thousands of protesters led by university students occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The protests were triggered by the death of Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party General Secretary who was forced to resign for his positions on reforming the party . The students were also demonstrating against corruption in the government, for workers’ rights, and for freedom of speech and the press. On June 3, 1989 the Chinese government ordered martial law and cracked down on the protesters in Tiananmen Square, killing an unknown amount (estimates range from the hundreds to thousands). Here’s an article about some survivors from yesterday’s Washington Post.
At the time I was living and working in Los Angeles. I can still remember sitting at my drawing desk at home when the news started broadcasting those horrifying images from Beijing. 
Associated Press
Senator McConnell, defender of Free $peech
The Senate minority leader has a column in the Washington Post today where he describes himself as “…a longtime defender of the First Amendment”. I did manage to avoid spraying the keyboard with my morning cup of coffee. The only free speech Mitch McConnell has ever been concerned with is the campaign contribution kind.
IRS targeted tea party groups
As if the Benghazi story wasn’t enough to keep Congress in hearings until 2016, we have the Justice Department seizing AP phone records and the IRS targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. The targeting of any group or individual based on ideology is outrageous and goes against everything our First Amendment stands for. However, it would have been nice if the same people who are criticizing today would have been as vocal after 9-11 and during the Iraq War. I don’t remember Senator Mitch McConnell taking to the Senate floor to defend anti-war protesters or denounce then Attorney General John Ashcroft. I also don’t recall McConnell challenging former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer for what he said in response to Bill Maher’s comments about 9-11 or defending the Dixie Chicks when they were widely criticized for their comments about President Bush.
Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker
Look who wandered into Lexington, Virginia:
Actually, Bob Mankoff was in town to speak at Washington and Lee University about humor and cartooning. Brett Koth (creator of Diamond Lil) and I had talked to a W&L class earlier and then joined Bob and his host, Prof Julie Woodzincka, for lunch. Bob told some great stories about cartoons which never were printed in The New Yorker. I had just been talking about cartooning, censorship, and “drawing the line” with students in Julie’s class so it was interesting to hear what The New Yorker would and wouldn’t accept in a cartoon.
Texas governor Perry attacks Ohman cartoon
Last week the Sacramento Bee published this Jack Ohman cartoon:
Governor Rick Perry, who obviously doesn’t understand the point of the cartoon, felt the need to write to the newspaper and demand an apology. Jack eloquently responded to the governor’s letter here.
Texas Lt. Governor Dewhurst added his thoughts on twitter:
A couple of colorful tweets from readers who don’t care for the cartoon:
Jack’s a big boy. He can handle criticism; it comes with the job. The sentiments above are not the problem. However, he has been receiving threats -which is not ok. I don’t care what people think the cartoon says or doesn’t say, everyone has the right to express an opinion without fearing for one’s life, editorial cartoonists included. If you’re angry or offended by a cartoon, you have every right to criticize it- write a letter to the editor, tweet your outrage, draw your own cartoon. What you don’t have the right to do is threaten or intimidate people for what they say or draw.
For those people people who are still confused I suggest taking a look at our First Amendment (it’s right before that Second one).
What makes an editorial cartoon an editorial cartoon
It’s not news to anyone who follows editorial cartoons that the art form is going through some tough times here in the US. Because of newspaper closings and the fact that more people are getting their news online, editorial cartoonists are finding it hard to find jobs and decent pay for reprints. However, It’s also doesn’t help the profession when a cartoon syndicate starts offering the same editorial cartoon with two completely different viewpoints. 
This is a clear case of a cartoon syndicate trying to maximize profits by offering the same artwork but changing a few words to address both ideological sides of an issue. An editorial cartoon is supposed to have a clear point of view. Let me repeat that: an editorial cartoon is supposed to have a clear point of view; it should reflect the opinion of the creator. Otherwise, it’s not an editorial cartoon but just a cartoon. Distributing this kind of work demeans and devalues the profession.
Thomas Jefferson and the Separation of Church & State
C-Span opened its Washington Journal program this morning with the question “Should religion play a role in politics?”,which led me to think about Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists and the issue of Separation of Church and State. Several years ago I was fortunate to see at the original at the Library of Congress:
Very cool.
10th anniversary of the Iraq War
The Washington Post has a slideshow of some of my print work leading up to and during the first couple of years of the Iraq War. Here’s a couple of them; you can see the full collection here.
Supreme Court will hear campaign finance case
This cartoon from my archives goes all the way back to 1997 but after reading the news that SCOTUS will consider lifting limits on individual campaign contributions I think it’s still relevant. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- money is not speech.
Rupert Murdoch apologizes for Scarfe cartoon
There’s another cartoon controversy overseas; A cartoon in the London Times has been labeled as anti-semitic by some critics. While one can question the timing of publication (Holocaust Memorial Day), I find the charges baseless. So does the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Here’s the cartoon by Gerald Scarfe; make your own mind up.
Violence in movies and video games
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shootings, there’s been plenty of discussion about guns. Violent video games and the role of Hollywood have also been mentioned as causes, with calls for restricting the amount of sex and violence. My radar immediately pops up whenever I hear someone going down the censorship path- who would make those decisions and where does it end? Frankly, I find Victoria Secret ads tasteless for their blatant sexual messages but I wouldn’t call for outlawing them. This will cause some readers to roll their eyes but I think the lack of diversity is a big reason why this country has a “culture of violence”. The majority of the video game developers are young males, the powerful players in Hollywood are men, and we’re still a far way from true representation in Congress. From my own experiences in the animation industry and the editorial cartooning profession I can tell you the lack of women and minority groups does color what is created and commented on.
