Editor on Editoons: “humorous but not too inflammatory”
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The Dallas Morning News (DMN) recently received a letter appealing for a more even-handed approach to the editorial cartoons appearing in their newspaper. The paper acknowledged that it was not the only like-minded request.
So, how does The News pick editorial cartoons? And are they disproportionately anti-Trump?
DMN Public Editor Stephen Buckley explains the circumstances and how they choose editorial cartoons:
Editorial cartoons hold a rich place in American journalism, ever since newspapers and magazines started publishing them regularly in the mid-19th century … For decades, many major newspapers boasted a staff cartoonist.
Not anymore. In recent years, as Opinion sections around the country withered, so has the presence of editorial cartoons. Some newspapers no longer run them. The News’ editorial pages remain robust, but the paper now typically picks up work published by artists who draw for national syndicates.
The Dallas Morning News seems to pick national political cartoons from the Tribune Content Agency.
Editorial Page Editor Rudy Bush says he and a small team seek editorial cartoons that are “humorous but not too inflammatory.” Sometimes, he told me, there’s a “limited selection that we can pick [that are] within the bounds of our standards.” Those days, they may have only three decent options, he says.
Buckley continued:
Conservatives are in power at both the state and national levels, and cartoonists usually make fun of whoever is in power, Bush says. “And I don’t really have a problem with that,” he adds, “as long as when people from the left are in power, we’re willing to let the cartoonists poke fun at them too. And we did that during the Biden administration.”
Occasionally, a cartoon goes too far. That was the case back in early April, when one depicted Elon Musk suspended over a burning Tesla, and readers rightly expressed their ire. “The minute I got the first note from a reader that day, I knew they were right, and we were wrong,” Bush told me. “I felt terrible about it.”
Though the cartoon remains on the DMN website.
Buckley does have one problem with the political cartoons:
They often aren’t funny.
Again the DMN’s Stephen Buckley ombuds column here.
feature image by Bill Bramhall
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