Dear Public Editor:
I would ... like to ask for myself and other conservative readers that you possibly balance the cartoon every day on the editorial page with some humorous shots at the left. There is certainly plenty to work with.
Dan Phillips
Our response:
In recent weeks, other readers have echoed this reader’s request. They argue that too many editorial cartoons in The Dallas Morning News have pummeled President Donald Trump and his istration’s policies.
So, how does The News pick editorial cartoons? And are they disproportionately anti-Trump?
Editorial cartoons hold a rich place in American journalism, ever since newspapers and magazines started publishing them regularly in the mid-19th century. The Pulitzer Prizes — the Oscars of North American journalism — have honored editorial cartooning since 1922, almost as long as the awards have been around (although the category is now called Illustrated Reporting and Commentary). 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.
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.
Other days, the choices “are really good,” he adds. “Many of these cartoonists are very talented people; they’re funny people. When you get a good cartoon, you get a good one. But you don’t get a good one every day.”
Bush notes that “there are a lot more cartoonists who draw from the left than from the right,” and artists “on both sides of the political spectrum” can be offensive or cruel. This further whittles the options on the right.
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 istration.”
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.”
That said, when I perused cartoons going back to mid-April, they covered everything from the dangers of AI to the measles outbreak. Even the renewed tension between India and Pakistan was featured once. Of more than two dozen, about 10 attacked Trump or his istration.
To me, that does not seem out of line. Yes, the Trump-related cartoons are negative, but Bush and his team labor to avoid “sounding like a broken record,” as he puts it, and so they spotlight a range of topics. That’s clear.
I do have a beef with our editorial cartoons though, one that goes deeper than whether they’re ideologically balanced: They often aren’t funny.
Usually, the piece evokes a weak smile or a groan. On some days, I’m just perplexed. I understand that the cartoon’s message is more important than the humor, but the humor matters too. If the work isn’t clever or funny, why bother?
Bush does say that although “there are still a lot of talented people” who are still drawing editorial cartoons, “grinding out a funny thought a day is not easy.”
I asked him if he’d considered replacing the cartoon with other content, and he said no, pointing out that editorial cartoons are popular both with print readers and with those who receive the Opinion section’s digital newsletter.
I get that. But Opinion is one of the paper’s most innovative sections, consistently surprising and interesting. At least as currently wrought, the daily editorial cartoon seems like an anachronism. Even if it is popular with readers, could the The News be using that prime real estate on the editorial page for content that’s even more engaging? Maybe it’s time to find out.