Fredericksburg, VA letterwriters slap around editorial cartoonist

Here's a couple of letters sent to the Fredericksburg (Virginia) Free Lance-Star about Clay Jones - Your cartoonist is not funny, FLS! and Throwing shoes at a president isn't funny.

That Darn Toles ... continued

Balancing the Cartoonist
Washington Post Saturday, December 20, 2008; A15

Dec. 13 Free for All writer Jim Welch proposed that The Post use a conservative cartoonist a couple of times a week.

No need to worry; there are already two alternatives: George F. Will and Charles Krauthammer, both of them harsh in their agenda, sufficiently extremist and frequently sketchy enough to provide more than a balance for Toles.

-- James Oglethorpe

Falls Church

·

I'd like to offer an alternative to Jim Welch's suggestion.

I have no problem with Toles's politics, although I don't share them. What I object to is that he, like Herblock before him, is seldom funny.

I'd prefer a cartoonist who shares your editorial page's political views but presents them in an amusing, sophisticated and light-handed way.

-- Myron Ebell

Cheverly

·

Pay no attention to the letter asking that you not run Tom Toles. He is the best part of the editorial page.

-- Gloria Berg

Arlington

That darn Toles, continued

Another winning letter to the editor!

Balancing Toles
Washington Post December 13 2008

Here's a suggestion: Why not use a conservative cartoonist a couple of times a week, as a supplement to Tom Toles?

If that doesn't appeal to you, perhaps you could at least find some neutral cartoonist who might dilute the harsh liberalism of Mr. Toles's agenda.

-- Jim Welch

Annapolis

That darn Toles, continued

Bush Forfeited Respect
Washington Post November 29 2008

Regarding the Nov. 22 Free for All letter objecting to Tom Toles's Nov. 18 cartoon:

I thought Toles's depiction of the torturer in chief departing the White House was spot on.

I have heard before the argument that the president deserves respect, but may I remind the letter writer that it's the office of the presidency as defined in our Constitution, not the individual, that deserves deference.

When an individual disgraces that office, as George W. Bush has surely done, that individual is no longer worthy of respect. He's lucky he hasn't been subjected to the Dick Cheney-Alberto Gonzales-style justice that has besmirched our nation.

-- Cathy Clary
Afton

Smackin' around the Post over the Danish cartoons

I just loved this letter to the editor:

Throwing Stones At Random House
Washington Post Wednesday, August 27, 2008; Page A12

The Post was entirely correct to criticize Random House for preemptively caving in to Islamic fundamentalists who might take offense with the novel "The Jewel of Medina" ["Random House's Retreat," editorial, Aug. 22].

But I can't help but think you would have a little more credibility on the subject if you hadn't allowed the same potential threats to dictate how you reported the controversy two years ago over cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. The Post had its chance to assert its right to report current events as a major newspaper should by printing the cartoons, but instead you caved in to the mob just as Random House has.

JOE SCHWIND
Martinsburg, W.V.

That darn Toles

A letter in today's Post criticizes this cartoon for mocking McCain's "religious experiences." Umm. Ok.

Payne, Bat-Senator and Wall-E complaint today in the Post

Caricaturist CF Payne has a large drawing of Tiger Woods on the front of a special AT&T National Section in today's paper. It's not online.

To read about the Bat-Senator, see "Leahy's Hat Trick as a Batman Cameo," By Mary Ann Akers And Paul Kane, Washington Post Thursday, July 3, 2008; Page A15...

...and a Letter writer to the Editor missed an e-bay opportunity:

Why a Movie Has Disney in the Dumps
Washington Post Thursday, July 3, 2008; Page A16

In his review of Pixar's new movie "Wall-E" ["From Pixar, a Droid Piece of Filmmaking," Style, June 27], John Anderson pointed out that the movie's dark messages are making co-producer and distributor Disney nervous.

Should I therefore assume that it was the Walt Disney Co.'s marketing machine that had the great idea to hand out useless, trashy plastic watches (complete with excessive packaging) to every child attending the movie? This movie is about the impact of trashing our planet -- literally.

My family came home from the movie with four of these watches. They are all in the garbage today, heading out to the dump to meet the tons of other silly, free plastic "toys" generated by Disney and distributed every day through McDonald's and Burger King.

If Disney is nervous about the movie, it is because the movie challenges the core of Disney's moneymaking strategy: insatiable consumerism.

ALLISON SCURIATTI
Washington

Stantis offends people too

Yesterday's letter to the editor - "A Cartoon That Fell Flat," by Richard E. Hurst, Washington Post Saturday, May 31, 2008; Page A11.

That darn Toles

Another letter to the editor...

Deserving of Impeachment
Washington Post Thursday, May 15, 2008; Page A14

I applaud Tom Toles for his May 9 cartoon on the Bush White House's illegal destruction of e-mail records. This makes Mr. Toles the first of The Post's editorial commentators to take seriously the array of impeachable offenses with which President Bush could be charged.

Impeachment has been attempted at the presidential level three times in the nation's history. Two -- of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton -- were patently political. The attempt to impeach Richard M. Nixon was appropriate, to protect us from an out-of-control presidency, and it would have gone further had it not been for his resignation and pardon.

Mr. Bush's tenure has been marked by high crimes and misdemeanors far more extreme even than President Nixon's. The Post has taken note of many of them, but never, until now, has one of its commentators seen the matter to its appropriate conclusion.

WARREN KORNBERG
Garrett Park

That darn Toles

Another letter to the editor...
Bush Was Right
Washington Post May 10 2008, p. A13

Does Tom Toles know what a recession is? His May 1 cartoon depicted President Bush denying the existence of a recession.

The president is correct. Economists' definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Our economy has not even come close to that.

It would behoove Toles and the media to stop using terms irresponsibly.

-- David Sherer

That darn Toles

This time he's making fun of dementia!

Dementia Is Not a Prop
Washington Post April 12 2008

Tom Toles's March 28 cartoon based on the report linking being overweight with dementia was in extremely poor taste. It is incomprehensible that you would allow a political cartoon to make fun of dementia.

Dementia is a serious condition affecting our aging population and is the leading reason for placing elderly people in institutions such as nursing homes. Surely you could use something benign to make your political points without making a medical condition a prop.

-- John Fuller

Fairfax

The writer is the diversity and equal employment opportunity officer for Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and a consultant for the National Council for Support of Disability Issues.

In Saturday's Post ... Toles criticism, Superhero Movie, Candorville

Ok, I can't find it online just like last week as the Free For All section doesn't appear in searches or on the opinion webpage, but there's a letter to the editor criticizing Tom Toles for this cartoon. Surprise, surprise.

Also, Superhero Movie got a lousy review in "Spoofs Like 'Superhero' Make Anyone Climb the Walls," By John Anderson, Washington Post Saturday, March 29, 2008; C01.

Finally, Darrin Bell in Candorville is definitely criticizing the Post in Friday and Saturday's strips for not running his strips about Obama's security.

Tom Toles taken to task

The letter:

Caricature Run Amok, Washington Post November 10, 2007

While I have found Tom Toles's cartoons often trivial and sometimes annoying, the Nov. 7 submission left me infuriated. To suggest that Vice President Cheney supports or dreams of taking dictatorial actions of the type in Pakistan indicated in the cartoon is disgusting and beneath The Post's standards of fairness.

There are legitimate arguments about the president's wartime powers, but our basic freedoms remain intact, as evidenced by the ability of Toles and all journalists and citizens to freely express their views, however repugnant, without fear of governmental retribution.

-- Lawrence L. Thompson
Washington

and the cartoon:

Yardley on Thurber

Today's Post has "James Thurber's Humorous Heart" by JONATHAN YARDLEY, Washington Post Saturday, May 12, 2007; C01. For us the key sentence is "One does indeed turn to Thurber for the drawings, but the great glory is his prose." Thus is cartooning dispatched although Yardley writes a good appreciation of Thurber's prose.

Right by Yardley, humorist (the word cartoonist may be verboten in Yardley's neighborhood) Richard Thompson has a good sendup of the Jamestown celebration madness.

In the letters to the editor section, a reader took a swipe at Ohio's Bok:

Bending Reid's Word
Washington Post (May 12, 2007)
The May 5 Drawing Board cartoon by Bok of the Akron Beacon Journal was a disgusting example of just how low the right-wing press will go in painting Democrats as troop haters. The cartoon shows Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) passing a U.S. soldier in an airport and yelling: "LOSER." I assume this cartoon was drawn because Reid recently said the war in Iraq was "lost." However, Reid never said the troops themselves were losers.

-- Eric Crossley

Tomorrow is an interview with a bunch of the women who do voices of Princesses in Shrek the Third. A preview ran in yesterday's Express and it should be a funny article.