Bob Englehart suspended for one week

Hartford Courant editorial cartoonist Bob Englehart has been suspended without pay for a week over a blog post according to Daryl Cagle. As I mentioned yesterday, Bob wrote a critical blog post about the New Hampshire Governor’s education plan and used a poor choice in wording (“losers raise losers”).

Both the paper and Bob have apologized.

7 thoughts on “Bob Englehart suspended for one week

  1. If you are offended by the comment, “Losers raise Losers,” isn’t that pretty much admitting you think you’re a loser?

  2. “Oh, sorry, my mistake – Losers actually raise winners! Hurray!”

    (angry sounds, screaming invectives, roar of anger)

    “Oh, still ticked off. Dang. How about, ‘It’s all good – Losers or Winner, it’s a random occurrence and has nothing to do with accountability and no one can ever be blamed for any choices except the Winners who get all their wealth unfairly! Hurray!’ Is that better?”

    (Roar of applause, happy sounds, babies laugh, tears of joy, etc)

  3. Bob made two mistakes:

    1. He made a factual statement rooted in evolutionary, cultural and basic animal behavior -while being white.
    2. He apologized for it.

  4. I like to believe in an America where my children can grow up to be less of a loser than their father.

  5. Bob is now part of the ‘Walking Dead Cartoonists Society’. Yes, he has a paycheck (when it resumes) benefits, office,etc,etc…. But as a staff cartoonist he has lost the journalistic freedom of speech support that allows a commentator to express their most compelling opinions.
    Bob is a GREAT cartoonist but….
    It will be impossible for him the next time he wants to express himself …to forget what happened last time he stuck his neck out from ‘political correctness’.
    This is a perfect example of why the Golden Age of Editorial Cartoonists at the Nation’s Newspapers is Over……
    BECAUSE….
    the golden age of newspapers is over.

  6. Well, yeah, Milt, but it’s also an example of how a person can become famous in one medium without having a lot of skills in another. There’s a reason so many fine pieces of work are collaborations and include both the phrase “written by” and “illustrated by.”

    “We’ve got to do more with less” should be engraved on the tombstones of newspapers that think copy editing and designing pages take the same skill set, and that think everyone, regardless of what they were hired for, should be turned loose on a blog. Treating your employees like interchangeable parts is a lousy strategy.

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