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Editorial cartooning

Paper Prints Danziger Cartoon, Publisher Apologizes Fires Editor

Published: March 3, 2025 1 minute 18 comments

Joel Englehardt at Stet News broke the story yesterday:

The owners of The Palm Beach Post fired Editorial Page Editor Tony Doris last month after the paper published a syndicated cartoon condemned as antisemitic.

Executives with Gannett, the nation’s largest daily news publisher with more than 200 newspapers and 19 in Florida, fired Doris on Feb. 17. They did not respond to requests for comment.

Doris, 67, had been editorial page editor since April 2021. He said he viewed the cartoon by Jeff Danziger of Counterpoint Media, which ran on Jan. 26, as anti-Israel but not antisemitic. 

Danziger, an 81-year-old veteran cartoonist, told Stet News he never before had an editor fired over one of his cartoons. He said the cartoon criticized war as a solution, a product of his experience as a Vietnam combat veteran. 

New York Times Media Reporter Benjamin Mullen picked up the news of an editor fired because he chose to print a Jeff Danziger cartoon critical of Israeli actions in Gaza over the past year.

Mr. Doris, 67, investigated local government, digging into city affairs in West Palm Beach, Fla., over two decades at the paper, most recently as editorial page editor. He didn’t expect his career there to end over a cartoon.

Gannett, the largest newspaper company in the United States and the owner of The Palm Beach Post, fired Mr. Doris last month after he decided to publish a cartoon about the war in Gaza, Mr. Doris said. The cartoon set off a backlash in Palm Beach, including a rebuke from a local Jewish group that claimed the cartoon was antisemitic, resulting in a quick response from Gannett’s senior editors.

Mr. Doris said in an interview last week that the cartoon was antiwar, not antisemitic…

Jeff Danziger, Counterpoint Media

Gannett apologized for printing the cartoon and called it an error:

In a statement, Gannett said that the cartoon “did not meet our standards,” adding that it “would not have been published if the proper protocols were followed.” The company did not say what those protocols were or comment on Mr. Doris’s termination, citing confidentiality.

“We sincerely regret the error and have taken appropriate action to prevent this from happening again,” said Lark-Marie Antón, a spokeswoman for The Palm Beach Post.

Following The Times reporting the story it was carried by The Jerusalem Post:

But the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County bought a full-page ad in the [Palm Beach] Post decrying the cartoon as “a modern-day blood libel” and saying, “Hate speech turns into hate crimes. Journalism must inform, not incite.”

By the Jewish Telegrapic Agency and by VIN News:

The cartoon drew swift condemnation from the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, which argued it trivialized the suffering of Israeli hostages and perpetuated dangerous antisemitic tropes, including a modern-day “blood libel.” In response, Gannett, the parent company of The Palm Beach Post, fired Doris on February 17 for violating editorial standards, although Doris defended the cartoon as critical of war, not antisemitism.

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Comments 18

  1. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitic. It’s anti-violent, not anti-Jew.

    1. …except for the 99% of the time that it is. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. You know that.

      1. “Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people.”

        What Orwellian double-speak! You reframe a colonial-settler project as a struggle for freedom, distorting historical realities. It obscures power dynamics by portraying Zionism as an oppressed group’s fight for self-determination while ignoring the dispossession and subjugation of Palestinians. The phrase masks the reality of ethnic cleansing and occupation by making the aggressor appear as the victim. By using morally righteous language to justify domination, it follows Orwellian tactics of twisting words to disguise oppression—similar to 1984’s “War is Peace”—turning a system of displacement into a supposed movement for justice.

  2. I don’t know what he was thinking. I mean, it’s right there in the Bible and rule #1 in American journalism…Thou Shalt Not Criticize Israel.

  3. …for the “crime” of existing. You can criticize it about all sorts of things, but not self-defense or existence. Trump was “criticizing” Ukraine the other day for self-defense and its existence, and most people outside the MAGA wing of the Republican party were horrified, and rightfully so.

    The UN and other bodies have been “criticizing” Israel for decades for things that any other country would be praised for. You know that.

    In the cartoon, Danziger “criticized” the hostages for being freed, implying that they didn’t deserve it. It was sort of like when Ted Rall criticized (attacked) a bunch of 9/11 widows and first responders in 2002 or when Garry Trudeau “criticized” the victims of the CHARLIE HEBDO attack in 2015.

    Satire, when done right, is a form of non-violent violence and is deliberately offensive. The best are especially so. But don’t whine when there’s a reaction.

    1. Danziger did not criticize the hostages for being freed. He criticized the disproportionate response.

    2. “the disproportionate response.” What would be a “proportionate” response, may I ask? On 10/8/23, the Palestinians and their supporters were GLOWING.

      They were laughing and mocking jewish suffering.

      What would be a proportionate response? Killing 1200 people and going home?

      1. The appropriate response would not include bombing hospitals, apartment buildings and whole cities indiscriminately and saying you were being discriminating.

      2. But they didn’t now, did they? Remember early in the war when an Islamic Jihad missile accidentally fell on a parking lot just outside a hospital? (I think it was in December of ’23) How there were condemnations of ISRAEL all over the world?

        The apartment buildings you mentioned were all military sites, which had missile launchers on the roof. So did the schools. Double duty like this had propaganda advantages. Also, there was no indiscriminate bombing.

        But you knew that.

    3. Eric, you wrote “In the cartoon, Danziger “criticized” the hostages for being freed, implying that they didn’t deserve it.” As a person of Jewish heritage (through my mother), I didn’t see it that way at all. It was clearly a rebuke of the way the State of Israel has responded to Hamas’s attack. The cartoon is a criticism of Israel’s political & military action against Palestinian civilians, not a screed against Israelis or Israeli hostages. The cartoon contrasts the price Palestinian civilians paid for the Israel’s rescue attempts of the hostages.
      You could say that this Palestinians brought this on themselves. You can use the same logic on the Israelis after they first annexed territory from the local Palestinians, with England’s blessing. Israel has been annexing territory ever since, even in the West Bank, even during this latest military campaign. None of this excuses what we like to call terrorism, which has not been one-sided.

      You further wrote “The UN and other bodies have been “criticizing” Israel for decades for things that any other country would be praised for. You know that.” I don’t think illegally taking land that is lived on and claimed by other cultures constitutes praiseworthy actions. That is what we generally refer to as “imperialism”, for which many countries (including ours) have been criticized, if not condemned.

      So, an editorial cartoon that legitimately criticizes political and military actions of a country is not antisemitic, simply because the country in question is a secular state populated largely (but not exclusively) by Israeli Jews. The editor’s firing was clearly an over-reaction based on bias.

      1. They never annexed anything with or without anyone’s blessing. Prior to the Arab genocide attempt of 1948 (five mighty armies invading the former British Mandate with the intent of finishing Hitler’s project of actual genocide), They BOUGHT every inch with cash money.

        Wars have consequences. Look at those tens of millions of innocent Germans who were kicked out of their homes right after World War II.

        You said “You know that.” I don’t think illegally taking land that is lived on and claimed by other cultures constitutes praiseworthy actions.”

        Like Blacks moving into White neighborhoods during the 1950s and ’60s?

        I could go on, but it would be pointless….

  4. “Gannett said that the cartoon did not meet our standards.” What standards???? Never had them. Never will.

  5. surely this editorial cartoon is commenting on the war that has been raging most recently in Gaza. In my opinion it is about the disproportionate response of the government of Israel to the very stupid attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023. It is not anti-semitic IMO. It expresses a sense of despair about the entire situation that has been continuous since 1948. The Palestinians living in Gaza were displaced there from the very areas that Hamas brutally attacked. Generations of displaced Palestinians have watched and experienced ethnic cleansing that looks quite like what russia is attempting to do to Ukrainians, like nazis did to Jews and others, what the U.S. did, as policy, to Native Tribal people over generations. The cartoon attempts, perhaps unclearly, to speak to ongoing injustice.

  6. this being gannett and Doris being 67 (as well as, no doubt, one ot the highest paid staffers) he’s had a target on his back for at least a decade. one less expensive buyout, one more cheaper firing for cause

  7. Here we go again. 1948 was 77 years ago. The oldest “true” refugee is that old and the rest are natives. Also, none of these pseudo-refugees have experienced ethnic cleansing. The Israelis left Gaza in 2005. Since then it has been free.

    Hamas, a terrorist group (why do I have to explain this yet again?) WON the last fee election in 2006 and staged a coup when the loser, Fatah, refused to leave.

    The Hamas government then declared WAR on Israel. VOLUNTARILY.

    Finally, There was a cease-fire that lasted from 24 to 30 November 2023 freeing 70 hostages and 150 Palestinian criminals. Hamas/IJP then ended the cease-fire and started shooting missiles again.

    The only reason this mess has gone on so long is because the Palestinians WANTED it to. The dispair is only due to the UNWRA which has been promoting resentment and hate for many years.

    1. >>>”The Israelis left Gaza in 2005. Since then it has been free.”

      What a blatant lie! — You ignore the fact that while Israel withdrew its settlers and military from Gaza, it still maintains strict control over the region’s borders, airspace, and waters. This control, coupled with a blockade, severely restricts Gaza’s ability to function as a truly independent state. The blockade limits the movement of people, goods, and essential resources, effectively preventing Gaza from being free in any meaningful sense.

      Moreover, Gaza has not been free from military conflict or occupation. Israel has conducted several military operations in Gaza since 2005, often in response to rocket fire from militant groups like Hamas, which controls the territory. The ongoing blockade, coupled with periodic violence and political divisions between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, means Gaza has never had true sovereignty or peace.

      This is just more, typical Israeli lying and doublespeak. – All resistance by Palestinians to 77 years of continuous persecution, murder and life in the cruel apartheid state that is Israel is completely justified.

      The vast majority of the world’s countries, the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and MOST AMERICANS acknowledge and are horrifed by Israel’s GENOCIDE of hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians, MOSTLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

      There is NEVER an excuse for genocide. It is the worst of all crimes against humanity and all its perpetrators must be punished to the full extent of the law.

  8. The Palm Beach Post, under Cox ownership, was home to two-time Pulitzer winner Don Wright, 1989-2008, when he retired. Don had one of the sharpest pens of the 12 editorial cartoonists I edited and represented as editor of international syndication at Tribune Media Services 1994-99. He also had one of the latest deadlines. We ate dinner after 8 when he completed the next’s day’s cartoon. Don died in 2024 at age 90.

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