Darkness at News

Mike Peterson in The Daily Cartoonist.

There have been a number of cartoons responding to Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos having spiked an endorsement for Kamala Harris, many of them playing on the Post’s motto “Democracy Dies in the Dark.”

Ann Telnaes gets the top spot in part because she works there and her cartoon joins with 16 Washington Post columnists who signed an outraged statement protesting the move, which is reason enough, but also because while she is perennially one of the most inventive political cartoonists, she knows when it’s time to be plainspoken.

And her fans recognize her outrage, as the comments on her page indicate.

The fact that the Post has published protests over the topic — from both staff and readers — is encouraging, because it indicates a chasm between the people who make the paper and the man who owns it, and that there is a difference between doing what you’ve been ordered to do and behaving like a lickspittle.

Riber Hansson 1939-2024

From Marco de Angelis' Facebook page.

Swedish cartoonist Riber Hansson has passed away. 

Born in 1939, he lived and worked in Stockholm and was cartoonist and illustrator at the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet from 1990 to 2000.

Russia Fakes Charlie Hebdo Cover To Smear Ukrainian Peace Plan

From The Daily Cartoonist. 

Pro-Kremlin media outlets are circulating a fake cover of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an effort to smear Ukrainian President Zelenskyy peace plan.

The story was posted last week on Pravda depicting a October 11 edition of Charlie Hebdo. 

There is no October 11 edition for sale on the Charlie Hebdo website.

Melki Melgarejo makes his debut at "L’Eau vive"

  

Paraguayan-born cartoonist Melki Melgarejo is making his debut this week as a contributor to L’Eau vive in Regina.

L’Eau vive, a bi-monthly francophone newspaper in Saskatchewan founded in 1971, is the only francophone newspaper in the province.

It is a member of Réseau Presse, a network of newspapers serving the francophone minority population since 1976.

Lectrr wins European Cartoon Award

Fom The Daily Cartoonist. 

This year’s European Cartoon Award goes to Steven Lectrr Degryse (LECTRR) for his cartoon of Russian opposition leader and political prisoner Alexei Navalny. 

The award was presented yesterday during the European Cartoon Day ceremony presented by the European Press Prize and Studio Europa Maastricht.

The European Cartoon Award, started in 2019, is dedicated to supporting and promoting political cartoons in Europe.

Saudi Arabia sentences Mohammed al-Ghamdi to 23 years

From the Associated Press.

Saudi cartoonist Mohammed al-Ghamdi, who drew under the pen name Al-Hazza, has been sentenced to 23 years in prison, according to the Sanad Human Rights Organization.

The sentence for Mohammed al-Ghamdi marks the latest in a widening judicial crackdown on any perceived dissent in Saudi Arabia since the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, now seen as the kingdom’s day-to-day ruler in place of his 88-year-old father King Salman.

Saudi officials did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday from The Associated Press. 

Michael de Adder fired from the Halifax Chronicle Herald

From Reddit.

We have just learned that cartoonist Michael de Adder has been let go from the Halifax Chronicle Herald after working there for almost 30 years.

There will only be two editorial cartoons per week in the Chronicle Herald from now on.

In related news, SaltWire had just been sold to Postmedia, Canada’s largest newspaper publisher majority owned by the U.S. hedge fund Chatham Asset Management. 

Chatham is also the majority owner of US-based McClatchy newspapers which last year fired their three staff editorial cartoonists and has given up on political cartoons on their papers’ opinion pages.

Also:

Michael de Adder Let Go by Postmedia – Update in The Daily Cartoonist,

2024 Editorial Cartoonist Convention in Montreal

 

Canadian and American editorial cartoonists, as well as a few European guests, are meeting this weekend in Montreal for a conference on the digital future of the profession organized by the McCord Museum.

More details here.