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Racist AI-Generated Cartoon Targets GOP Lawmaker

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D. D. Degg Published: July 30, 2025 1 minute 3 comments

A local news website run by a disgraced former state lawmaker who has faced child sex charges and espoused racist views is taking fire for posting racist AI-generated cartoons aimed at a Republican state lawmaker. 

Prescott eNews, which covers news in Prescott [Arizona] and the surrounding communities in Yavapai County, is facing pointed criticism for publishing multiple AI-generated “political cartoons” that depict Prescott Valley Republican lawmaker Quang Nguyen in a racist manner. 

Jerod MacDonald-Evoy at the Arizona Mirror reports on the hyper-local Prescott eNews posting artificial intelligence generated cartoons credited to “Promptology Engineering by Terry” criticizing Quang Nguyen and consistently and purposely misspelling the representative’s name.

In a cartoon titled “Going To The Dogs,” Nguyen is depicted being investigated by the police for stealing and eating neighborhood pets, a racist anti-immigrant trope that dates back to anti-Chinese immigrant rhetoric of the 1880s. Republicans in 2024 employed the racist trope against Haitian immigrants, even as they acknowledged it was untrue.

As for the “cartoonist:”

The racist cartoons attacking Nguyen are attributed to “Promptology Engineering by Terry” and a post by Stringer about the addition of political cartoons says that Terry is the “in-house AI guru” who also designed some features of the website. 

The source code of the Prescott eNews website revealed it was designed by a man named Terry Baeseman, who previously worked as the webmaster for the Prescott Valley Police Foundation. A spokesperson for the Prescott Valley Police Foundation said he “retired several years ago and is no longer involved” with the organization. 

After the Arizona Mirror sent emails to Baeseman about the cartoons, his last name was removed from the Prescott eNews source code. 

Stringer and Baeseman did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

[Web site owner] Stringer used to hold the Arizona House of Representatives seat that Nguyen currently does, but he resigned from the legislature in disgrace in 2019 after refusing to cooperate with an ethics investigation into child sex crime charges he faced in 1983.