Government v. Press

This week's Graphical History Tour bravely sallies forth against censorship of newsmedia in the United States.

As a political cartoonist who has just been among a few dozen other political cartoonists, Your Humble Scribbler has a vested interest against censorship of editorial cartoons in particular. 

During the First Golden Age of my profession, in the late 18th Century and into the next, newspaper publishers saw the popularity and influence of the Thomas Nasts and Johannes Kepplers drawing for the national weeklies, and hired some of the best editorial cartoonists to grace their newspapers' front pages. And not incidentally, to push the publishers' political agendas.

"No Honest Man Need Fear Cartoons" by Homer Davenport in New York Journal, Apr. 22, 1897

Local politicians did not take kindly to being lampooned on those front pages. Upset by Homer Davenport's cartoons of influential Republican Mark Hanna, New York political boss Senator Thomas Platt, pushed a bill in the state assembly to ban cartoon depictions of real persons without their consent.

Davenport drew the parallel with Platt's predecessor, William Tweed, who had famously complained that although his constituents didn't read the papers, they saw "them damn pictures." Platt's bill failed to pass, but that didn't stop similar bills from cropping up elsewhere.

"The Governor Has His Revenge" by Robert Edgren in San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 25, 1899

A copycat bill by California Republicans failed to pass on its first go-around, but was passed during the next legislative session and signed by newly elected Republican Governor Henry Tifft Gage. As in New York, the partisan Democratic cartoons in Hearst newspapers were a major impetus for the bill; specifically, a cartoon of Gage being led on a leash by railroad magnate C.P. Huntington.

Having been signed into law, California's anti-cartoon bill was laughed — and ignored — into obscurity. Hearst cartoonist Robert Edgren offered an unusual motive for Governor Gage to sign the anti-cartoon bill: that the cartoonists were not drawing him any more.

Frankly, the man was a caricaturist's dream. Too bad he was voted out of office after one term.

by Walter McDougall in North American, Philadelphia, Jan. 30, 1903

Responding to daily cartoons in Philadelphia's North American by Charles Nelan depicting gubernatorial candidate Samuel Pennypacker as the pet parrot of Republican Party boss Senator Matthew Quay, Pennypacker's inaugural address demanded censorship of the "disreputable" North American. Obligingly, State Representative Frederick Pusey introduced a bill outlawing publication of any cartoon 

"portraying, describing, or representing any person, either by distortion, innuendo, or otherwise, in the form or likeness of beast, bird, fish, insect, or other unhuman animal, thereby tending to expose such person to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule."

The North American's other editorial cartoonist, Walt McDougall, responded with a cartoon stretched across the top of the front page depicting Quay, Pusey, and Pennypacker as a series of inanimate objects. (I have folded his cartoon to fit into a square format.) In an accompanying editorial, McDougall exhorted his fellow cartoonists, "Every cartoonist has a Noah's Ark full of worn, broken, and decrepit animals, bugs, and such, but the fresh vegetable field is untouched."

Pusey's bill nevertheless passed the Pennsylvania legislature and Pennypacker signed it into law. It was promptly repealed after Pennypacker was defeated in the next election.

by Frank Spangler in Montgomery [Ala.] Advertiser, Feb. 3, 1915 

As part of a package of election regulation laws, the Alabama legislature entertained a bill sponsored by Samuel D. Weakly prohibiting the caricature of any "prominent" man or politician. "It will make the average newspaper reader smile," the Advertiser editorialized, 

"that a sacred class is to be made of officeholders and office seekers, for they are the bulk of prominent people whom newspapers cartoon. A cartoon is a semi-editorial expression, and a powerful method of reaching public opinion, because ridicule and sarcasm are vividly presented to the eye. Both weapons are enormously effective on the stump, and there is no reason why the press should be deprived of their use. In fact, such a bill is a distinct effort to muzzle the press, and is an infringement of its constitutional powers."

As far as I have been able to determine, Weakly's proposal did not make it into the final bill. The Act (#171, § 11) did require cartoons expressing an opinion on any candidate or election issue to include "upon its face" the name of the newspaper's owner or the chief executive of its corporation.

"The Light that Must Not Fail" by Harry Murphy ca. May 5, 1917

U.S. entry into World War I opened the doors for government censorship of newspapers, and not just for their cartoons.

The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to publish with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies during wartime; to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States; or to willfully obstruct military recruiting or enlistment.  The Act also gave the Postmaster General authority to impound publications that he determined to be in violation of the Act.

"That Wooden One" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 5, 1917

The U.S. was drawn into Europe's war due in part to the sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania by a German U-boat. Nelson Harding, in a single-column cartoon on the Brooklyn Eagle's front page, turned the incident back against advocates for press censorship.

"Is This Somewhere in Germany or Somewhere in America" by Beaumont Fairbank in Brooklyn Sunday Eagle, May 5, 1918

In the same newspaper on the same day, Beaumont Fairbank drew his cartoon in support of an amendment to the 1917 Espionage Act by Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA) stating, 

"The use of the mails should not be permitted to any newspaper, magazine, periodical, circulars or pamphlets which are printed in whole or in part in the German language." 

Fairbank was by no means alone in advocating governmental censorship of the foreign language press. While that amendment had failed to be included in the final bill, local officials outlawed German-language newspapers in several cities in New Jersey and Long Island.

"Wenn Uns Jetzt Unsere Vorväter Sehen Könnten" by John Lenz in Vorbote, Chicago, Oct. 31, 1917

Protest against this censorship was almost exclusively limited to the foreign language newspapers themselves. The banner behind Congress in John Lenz's cartoon translates to "Freedom of Speech, Press Freedom, Right of Assembly." The rolled parchments beneath George Washington represent the Constitution and First Amendment.

"O Sorry Plight" by Arthur Young in Masses, New York, September, 1917

The Creel Commission also employed the U.S. Post Office to censor publication of material counter to the official line. Art Young's cartoon above appeared in the September issue of  the marxist, antiwar Masses after Burleson's USPS had declared the August issue "unmailable under the Act of June 15, 1917."

"A Convenient Perch" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, May, 1918

If Art Young expected other publications to rally in solidarity with Masses, he would be sadly mistaken. The Committee on Public Information headed by George Creel created a Bureau of Cartoons, which produced a weekly bulletin for cartoonists to direct their attention to matters the Wilson administration wanted them to draw about. By and large, cartoonists and their publishers fell right in line.

Masses ceased publication after its November/December issue.

"It's Nothing Important" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, Dec. 20, 1972

Jumping ahead over half a century, President Richard Nixon tried very hard to force newsmedia to slant the news the way he wanted it reported. His administration enlisted the Federal Communications Commission to pressure television networks, cut funding to public broadcasting, and took newspapers to court. He was stymied, however, without a cooperative Congress or courts.

Instead, his communications team went on to found Fox News.

"Ask Me Anything" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, Nov. 15, 1973

In the meantime, we learned that President Richard Nixon kept an "enemies list" of critics of his administration, including many journalists. Nixon had always had a testy relationship with the media well before being elected president. As the Watergate scandal unfolded, it was revealed that he used the Justice Department, FBI, and Internal Revenue Service to open investigations against individuals on that list — although at least he never barred Jack Anderson, Daniel Schorr, or Mary McGrory from White House press briefings. 

for Bergetoons blog, August, 2018

There has been no assault on the media and the facts to rival the Absolutely Corrupt Donald Trump Regime's campaign to quash any reportage that doesn't fawn upon Dear Misleader. The two terms of his presidency have seen government websites erased, responsible reporters banned first from the Pentagon and now the White House, and weaponization against the media of both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission, this time with general compliance on the part of Congress and the Supreme Court.

for Q Syndicate, February, 2025

Unless approved by Trump himself, it's all just fake news.

"They give me only bad publicity, press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away, ... That’s all they do. If you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said. But when you go back, take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They're giving me all this bad press, and they're getting a license. When you have a network and they have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that's all they do — that license, they're not allowed to do that!" — Donald Joffrey Trump, September 16, 2025

Q Toon: The Truth Will Out

Since I was going to be crunched in the middle seat of a Southwest airplane this past week when I would usually be at my drawing board, I had to draw this week's cartoon several days earlier. 

Happily, National Coming Out Day is next month, and I already had a recurring character who is not out to his mother. (At least, that was clearly implied when she came to visit last January.) 

But I have also established that Max's mom works at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, in some capacity where she personally interacted with Richard Grenell, so she can't be completely oblivious to gay men. Max and Leo have probably been co-habitating for at least five years now in spite of their political differences; she ought to have some inkling that there must be some reason that neither one has kicked out the other.

The two of them own a dog together, for cryin' out loud.

On the other hand, perhaps Mom thinks National Coming Out Day is all about encouraging outdoor activities.

Conventional Wisdom

President Marc Murphy addresses a sheaf of cartoonists; your humble scribbler, appropriately, at far left. Photo by Angelo Lopez

I mentioned yesterday last weekend's convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, where we voted to reconstitute the organization as the Association of Political Artists. 

From outgoing AAEC President Marc Murphy's letter to the membership:

Of course, the Big News is that the Membership (including those attending in person and via Zoom link) voted to approve the two proposals I described in my last message to you. I won’t speak for them but it’s fair to say, at the least, that the members voted not just to save our organization and take steps to inject it with new life, but also to reposition it to respond more directly to the threats our work and Free Speech itself face. So, as soon as appropriate and necessary bylaw, website, and other changes can be made the AAEC will become the Association of Political Artists (APA) and will become an affiliate member of the vaunted Society of Illustrators. 

The move has been a long time coming. Vulture capitalists have spent the current millennium ripping flesh off the bones of our nation's newspapers, and no profession dependent upon print journalism is going to be around long.

The median age of the AAEC membership is probably around 65; the youngest member at the convention was about 40. Two members who made it to the convention are recovering from strokes. KAL Kallaugher spoke to conventioneers from his hospital bed, where he's waiting for a new heart.

Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher and David Horsey 

Not that you should read anything into that regarding the fate of political cartooning today.

There is no lack of graphic political commentary out there, much of it created by persons in their 20's and 30's. They're just not creating it for newspaper editorial pages. Their work ranges from memes to long-form webcomics, in the cloud or on the walls, static or animated.

The AAEC-cum-APA is going to spend the next year trying to define what a political artist is, hopefully in such a way that we don't have to spend another year defining what it isn't.

But we're not about to welcome the Baltimore Sun editorial board.

Jack Ohman moderates a panel of Joel Pett, Ann Telnaes, and Steve Brodner on "Anger Management."

There were a lot of other presentations and panel discussions over the three days of the convention. Topics included protecting our work from being "scraped" for ai; recovering from being let go or suffering a stroke; and cartooning for a community under siege.

The AAEC's Ink Bottle Award went to a pair of longtime volunteers at our convention. The Rex Babin Award for local-issue cartooning went to Canadian editions Graeme Mackay. Another honor went to one of those cartoonists recovering from a stroke, Clay Jones. (By the way, I reported to Facebook some troll who posted a nasty comment about Clay on a photo I had posted there, and I will not approve any such comments here, either.)

I didn't buy any new books at this convention, so I have no new book reviews to offer. I did, however, get Jack Ohman to sign my copy of his latest book, Weird. Had I known that Steve Sack would make it to Sacramento, I'd have loved to get him to autograph my copy of The First and Only Book of Sack. I wouldn't expect him to fill a whole page, though.

Your humble scribbler next to a display panel that included one of his cartoons.

Speaking of making it to the convention, stormy weather in Chicago disrupted the travel arrangements of myself and several others. I had originally bought a plane trip on American Airlines involving a layover in the City of Broad Shoulders, starting from Milwaukee around 8:00 a.m. Thursday morning, I got American's message that the first flight would be delayed; but I was already packed and ready to leave the house at 6:00, so I left.

The agent at the check-in counter offered me the option of switching to a flight set to take off at 7:30, so I took it — only to see that flight get cancelled. The best I could get when I got to the front of the boarding counter was a noon-ish flight to Dallas connecting to a mid-afternoon plane to Sacramento that would arrive too late for me to make the first day's convention activities.

Not only did I get to watch my original plane take off without me; I had also wasted $80 checking my suitcase and upgrading my boarding group from 6 to 4. I ended up in boarding group 8 of all four planes to Sacramento and back; all four planes were completely full, and due to unavailable overhead bin space, they were begging group 8 passengers to check their bags for free.

Ah, well. Some other conventioneers from the East Coast didn't make it to Sacramento until midnight.

President Marc Murphy opens the Saturday night awards presentations at the Sacramento History Museum

Our next The APA's first convention will be in New York City at the home of the Society of Illustrators.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Display along a stairway at the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento

I was at the last convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists this past weekend, so I had to draw this week's upcoming cartoon before I left. Given the peripatetic nature of the attention-starved lunatic at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it ain't easy coming up with political cartoons that are guaranteed to be relevant over a week in advance.

The annual National Coming Out Day is coming up on October 11, so I figured I might as well draw something about it in time for the monthlies that run my cartoons.

As for the convention, it was the AAEC's last.

In light of the impending Death of Print, heralded by the Death of the Editorial Page, we voted to change the organizational name to the Association of Political Artists. Young people these days have never even seen an editorial page, and certainly don't produce cartoons for them.

We had considerable discussion over whether "APA" is too broad, and whether something more specific is needed to disqualify, say, presidents of the United States who post videos of themselves dropping tons of shit from an Air Force bomber.

On the other hand, as anyone who has struggled to remember all the letters in LGBTQIAA2SDLNBKR2QKn4PXEIEIO+ could tell you, it is nearly impossible to find a functional balance between specificity and inclusivity.

Oliphant's Veeps

"Promises, Promises" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, April 1968

How many vice presidents do you count in the above cartoon?

I recently mused that since "Oliphant's Presidents" has already been done (you can buy the book at amazon), I could have commemorated Pat Oliphant's passing by collecting his Vice Presidents. Well, his career spanned several of them, so here they are.

"Click" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, October, 1968

Lyndon Johnson picked Hubert Humphrey as his running mate in 1964 to shore up his support with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. To Baby Boomers too young to remember the Minnesotan speaking out on behalf of Black Americans' civil rights in 1948, however, Humphrey came to be seen as errand boy for the man sending that generation to fight and die in a far away forever war in southeast Asia.

Running for president in LBJ's place after Johnson withdrew from the race, Humphrey found it difficult to distance himself from the administration's unpopular war while promising to continue advancing its Great Society ideals.

Of course, Johnson qualifies as a former Vice President in this cartoon, too. I suppose it is possible that Aussie Oliphant penned a cartoon of LBJ sometime before November of 1963; John Kennedy's Vice President could well have said or done something to catch the attention of the Adelaide editorial pages.

"Our Earth Contact, Spiro, Is Pushing for a Landing Here by 1986" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, September 1969

Humphrey lost the 1968 election to Richard Nixon, whose first Vice President, Spiro Agnew, served as the new administration's attack dog, speaking out against the media, liberals, antiwar activists, and the nattering nabobs of negativism.

Oliphant has some fun with one of Agnew's less controversial pronouncements in this cartoon, just two months after the first manned landing on the moon.

There has not, in case anybody is wondering, been a manned mission to Mars as of this writing; but NASA landed a craft on the Red Planet ten years before Mr. Agnew predicted.

Agnew was easily the most caricaturable of the Veeps we're looking at today — at least of the ones who never got promoted to the top job — so five versions of him show up in Oliphant's single-panel cartoon.

Did you remember to count Nixon as a former Veep at the top of this post?

"The Lone Ranger" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, May 1974

Of course you did.

Less than nine months into Richard Nixon's second term, Agnew pled no contest to charges of bribery  and resigned the Vice Presidency, bringing about the first exercise of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Passed and ratified after JFK's assassination, it provided a mechanism to fill a vice presidential vacancy.

Gerald Ford was quickly named and confirmed as Agnew's replacement at a time when the President had some legal problems of his own. Yet, while Agnew cartoons were instantly recognizable, six months into Ford's vice presidency Oliphant still found it necessary to write Ford's name on his chest.

"I'd Like You to Meet Our New Vice-President" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, December 1974

No such problem with Nelson Rockefeller, the former Governor of New York who had run for the presidency in 1960, 1964, and 1968.

He did not make a lasting impression as Ford's second in command, however. Not long ago, contestants on Jeopardy! needed to come up with the name of the vice president who followed Gerald Ford, and none of the three knew who it was.

I'm sure my very intelligent readership had no problem spotting him in the cartoon at the top of today's post.

"Ah Plan a Highly Important Staff Role" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, January 1977

The vice presidency is notoriously a thankless make-work job. John Nance Garner likened it to a bucket of warm spit, or something that rhymed with it. Thomas Marshall joked about two brothers, one of whom went to sea while the other was elected Vice President, and neither was heard from again. Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Selina Meyers in Veep was a character study in constant frustration and humiliation.

Jimmy Carter actually followed through with his promise to give Walter Mondale a substantial policy role in his administration. Mondale, the first vice president to have an office inside the White House, was Carter's adviser and trouble-shooter, the Georgian's conduit to Capitol Hill Democrats.

"There Is No Truth Whatever in the Rumor" by Pat Oliphant, October 10, 1988

There was nothing fair about that purse Oliphant always drew with Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush — Oliphant went further than almost any other mainstream editorial cartoonist in exploiting Bush's so-called Wimp Factor.

Having criticized Ronald Reagan's "voodoo economics" when Bush was a rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, Bush served as a major cheerleader for Reaganomics and the rest of that administration's policies. Behind the scenes, Bush continued the Mondale model of the vice presidency: an experienced advisor who didn't seek credit for administration successes. By the same token, he also avoided the limelight during the Iran-Contra scandal.

The purse, and the Wimp Factor, disappeared once Bush as President dispatched troops to overthrow the government of Panama.

"How Come Is It" by Pat Oliphant, January 9, 1992

Young and handsome J. Danforth Quayle presented cartoonists with a real caricaturing challenge, which Oliphant answered by drawing him as a child. The vice presidency didn't lend Quayle much opportunity to dispel the cartoonists' depiction of him as a callow, inexperienced goofball; attempting to correct a schoolboy's flawless spelling of "potato" didn't help him.

It was a case of peaking too soon; he might have been taken more seriously after a few more years gave him a face fit for presidential central casting. I wouldn't have recognized him in the second pew at Dick Cheney's funeral over three decades later if he hadn't been sitting next to his wife.

"Where Do We Put Mr. Gore" by Pat Oliphant, November 8, 1993

Oliphant leaned into Al Gore's wooden reputation here, a product of the Vice President's extremely careful, measured, parsed, and deliberate speaking style. If Dan Quayle came off as a not-too-bright schoolboy skating by on his looks, Al Gore could have been the guidance counselor patiently explaining the importance of responsible life choices to a school assembly full of Quayles.

"The Energy Show" by Pat Oliphant, May 1, 2001

Dick Cheney was a completely different animal than any previous Vice President. Oliphant consistently portrayed him as the real power behind a frat boy President who got the job on the strength of having been a legacy student who made it to graduation because Dad's name was on a wing of the administration building.

Chief of Staff for President Ford, Congressman from Wyoming, and Defense Secretary under Bush the Elder, Cheney was more recently Chair of the Halliburton Corporation, a multinational oil service conglomerate. Tapped to find Bush the Younger a running mate in 2000, he found one in the mirror.

"I'm Smilin' Joe Biden and I'm Running for President" by Pat Oliphant, January 23, 2013

A commenter at Daily Cartoonist regretted that Pat Oliphant had never drawn Joe Biden. True, Oliphant's eyesight had failed him by the time Biden won the presidency; but he had drawn Biden as Vice President (and as Senator).

Which is where this Graphical History Tour must wrap things up. I know of no Oliphant cartoons of Mike Pence or Kamala Harris, and it's highly unlikely that he ever drew J.D. Vance.

On the other hand, I could have included cartoons he drew of former Vice Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Harry Truman, and there is probably one of Teddy Roosevelt somewhere along the line. But this post is already long enough.

And I could never be certain that I hadn't missed a cartoon featuring William Rufus Devane King or Charles Curtis.

Q Toon: Stacy Garrity Explains It All

I haven't seen much interest from national media in Pennsylvania's gubernatorial election this year; incumbent Governor Josh Shapiro is widely expected to win reelection handily. But since publications in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh run my cartoons, I decided to show the Keystone State a little love this week.

The Republican nominee for governor there is State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who, I will admit up front, has reportedly been doing a very good job at her present post. As a colonel in the Army Reserve, Garrity was a whistle-blower at Camp Bucca in Iraq, exposing abuses of prisoners and inhumane conditions.

On the other hand, she is a full-on MAGA Trumpster who advocated throwing out Pennsylvanians' votes in 2020 because they went for local boy Joe Biden over the grifter from Mar-a-Lardo. She's anti-choice on abortion rights, a COVID skeptic who protested houses of worship getting closed when other public gathering places were also shutting their doors. 

Spotlight PA, which identifies as "an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania," tried to get Garrity to respond to its questions on issues of interest to LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians, but received only a terse, almost rude reply from a campaign aide.

Garrity’s campaign did not respond to a list of questions from Spotlight PA, including one asking her to elaborate on her position on same-sex marriage. Other questions included whether she would support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians; if healthcare providers should be able to assert religious or moral objections to turn people away; what she thinks of legislation to ban instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary classrooms; or if her administration would maintain a policy discouraging licensed providers and commercial insurers from conducting conversion therapy.

Instead, a spokesperson shared the following statement from Garrity: “We are all children of God, and every person regardless of their race, their gender, or their sexual orientation should be treated with dignity and respect. Period. Full stop.”

Marriage equality is, at least for now, the law of the land; but a heteros-only Definition of Marriage Act remains in Pennsylvania's statutes in case the Trump Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. Transgender persons are a favorite target of Republican politicians these days, and "religious liberty" advocates still want to be able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ patients, customers, renters, and neighbors.

Of  course, our issues are not the dominant ones in Pennsylvania this year. As in many other races around the country, the top campaign issues are affordability, data centers, and saving democracy from the other party. 

And by the way, there's a war on, or off, or on again. Or maybe it's splunge.

Happy Constitution Day (while it lasts)!

This Week's Sneak Peek

I'm going to tell you right now that this week's cartoon has nothing to do with Dolly Parton.