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Many newspapers have decided not to hire a full-time editorial cartoonist, but instead publish the readily available work of syndicated cartoonists. To explore what impact these decisions and other changing circumstances related to editorial cartoons have on journalism, Nieman Reports asked cartoonists, editorial page editors, and close observers of cartooning to write out of their experiences and share their observations about how the long-time role that cartoons have played in journalism and democracy is being affected.
Matt Davies, who is staff cartoonist for The Journal News in White Plains, New York, the 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winner for editorial cartooning, and president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), contends there is "an inherent shortsightedness to this buy-acartoon model" that many newspapers are turning to. There is, he argues, value in "having a good and consistent cartoonist's voice in the paper," and this value was well understood by earlier generations of newspaper editors and publishers. Davies writes about the "Cartoons for the Classroom" project created by AAEC to "encourage children to learn about the language of the editorial cartoon and appreciate its historic and contemporary importance in the political dialogue."
J.P. Trostle, a cartoonist and author of "Attack of the Political Cartoonists," describes the loss of specific editorial cartoonists' jobs and explains why they aren't being filled. In an era of consolidation and cost cutting, Trostle writes, ". . . who's more expendable than the ink-stained wretch hunched over in the corner drawing silly pictures?" Another reason, Trostle says, is the controversy that strong...