The Post may have lost (aka gotten rid of) most of its political cartoonists, but the daily strips are starting to make up for that.
| ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
Was Michael Ramirez's Feb. 25 editorial cartoon, "The weight is over," commissioned by the Trump administration? The cartoon used a mean stereotype to depict the government as getting fat on taxpayers' money. No, federal employees work hard to grant Americans security.
This cartoon enrages me because two friends unjustly lost their jobs. It enrages me because my friend who works at the Environmental Protection Agency had to drive into the office on a vacation day to email her five points demanded by Elon Musk. It enrages me because my sister's job at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which she always loved, has turned morose because of the siege mentality among federal workers. It enrages me because Ramirez mirrored the big lie about government that got Donald Trump elected and that is killing our democracy. Musk is not a trainer exercising the government to be healthier. He is an executioner, slashing agencies and cutting jobs with blind swipes of his big red chainsaw.
Katherine Murphy, Falls Church
Michael Ramirez is a talented artist who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for cartooning, and I greatly enjoy his painstakingly rendered artwork. It's his ideas that often fall short.
Take his Feb. 25 cartoon for example. Aside from the offices established by the Constitution, our "Government" is simply the sum of the departments, agencies and programs established by Congress and signed off on by a president — not something inflicted on a free people by outside forces. Are there programs we no longer wish to support? Are too many resources devoted to a given activity? Are there waste and fraud? By all means, focus on those and make adjustments accordingly, by legislative or administrative action. That's why we have congressional oversight and departmental inspectors general.
I have had some experience in government, including four years as a political appointee in a GOP administration, and I am confident I know more about the bureaucracy than Ramirez does. Whenever I hear someone complain without specifics that the government is "too big," my answer is a rhetorical question: "How big should a box be?"
Robert J. McManus, Bethesda
at the time, I posted this comment on the Post website, and my opinion hasn't changed.
Jennifer Hull, Greenville, South Carolina
Washington Post Feb 15 2024: A13.
online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/14/rent-seeking-usaid-doge-musk-leonardo-da-vinci/
A gut punch. That's what I felt when I came upon Edith Pritchett's Feb. 3 cartoon, "The fashion philistine's guide to identifying haute couture." Many of the articles that led up to it were alarming, even frightening. I thank The Post for giving us the truth about the chaos unfolding in this country, but where was the courage in this cartoon choice?
The strip has been cancelled by its syndicate due to Darrin Bell's legal troubles. The Washington Post newspaper dropped him immediately when they came to light, but slipped up on Sunday and published the last strip that was distributed weeks ago. They had replaced it on Sunday with Curtis (which runs weekdays as well) and with Six Chix on weekdays. DD Degg at the Daily Cartoonist has a good rundown of Bell's career today. I'm mailing my copy to the Billy Ireland library at Ohio State University.
The Daily Heller: Cartoonist Walks After WaPo Kills Bezos Satire
The Daily Heller January 7 2025 https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-washington-post-editorial-cartoonist-walks-after-satire-of-bezos-is-killed/
I popped in briefly to say hello and check out the exhibit. We used to see his work regularly in the Washington Post Magazine, illustrating Gene Weingarten's column. Information on the show follows the pictures. This exhibit is mostly celebrity portraits. Here's Bruce Guthrie's photos.
 |
| Alex Fine |
And a Taylor Swift print for sale, but not on the wall. This was for an Economics journal based on the money generated by her Eras tour:
Hairhoppers & Showstoppers:
Portraits, Posters, and Editorial Art by Alex Fine
Bio: Alex Fine is a Baltimore-based illustrator with an extensive client list that includes TIME Magazine, Newsweek, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Wired, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, Scholastic, Harper Collins, AT&T, Variety, Baltimore City Paper, and Politico. He is represented in North America and United Kingdom by SNYDER.
"My first art show in years and I’ll have a large collection of well coiffed portraits, band posters, and editorial art from years of magazine and newspaper work. Contact me or Dwightmess with any print requests and if you live in the DMV, hope to see you there!" ~Alex
Check out more of Alex's artwork !!--> @alexfineillos
Event Info:
Hairhoppers & Showstoppers:
Portraits, Posters, and Editorial Art by Alex Fine
Opening Reception:
Friday. January 10th. 7-9pm.
Location:
DWIGHTMESS
805 Silver Spring Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
A Pulitzer winner quits 'Washington Post' after a cartoon on Bezos is killed
AYESHA RASCOE and David Folkenflik
Weekend Edition Sunday January 4, 2025
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/04/nx-s1-5248299/cartoonist-quits-wapo-over-bezos-trump-cartoon-washingtonpost
https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/wesun/2025/01/20250105_wesun_washington_post_cartoonist_resigns_over_her_cartoon_critical_of_jeff_bezos.mp3
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5248299
Hello darkness, my old friend: the Ann Telnaes resignation and the late, formerly great Washington Post
What a travesty.
Jack Ohman's You Betcha!
Jan 4 2025
https://jackohman.substack.com/p/hello-darkness-my-old-friend-the
Democracy Dies Like This
Nick Anderson
Pen Strokes
Jan 4 2025
https://nickanderson.substack.com/p/democracy-dies-like-this
Ann Telnaes, the Washington Post, and a childhood dream that still lives
About Ann Telnaes resigning from the Washington Post over a spiked cartoon
Darrin Bell
Darrin Bell's Disobey in Advance Jan 5 2025
https://darrinbell.substack.com/p/ann-telnaes-the-washington-post-and
Silencing the Court Jesters.
10 years ago cartoonists were murdered for drawing offensive things. Things have not been getting better.
Jason Chatfield
Jan 5 2025
https://www.newyorkcartoons.com/p/silencing-the-court-jesters
"Trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press," the Pulitzer Prize winner says of her former employer
Pulitzer prize winner Ann Telnaes drew a cartoon of the paper's owner kneeling before Donald Trump
"I've never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at," Ann Telnaes wrote. "Until now."
*Hello darkness, my old friend: the Ann Telnaes resignation and the late, formerly great Washington Post
What a travesty.
Jack Ohman’s You Betcha!
Jan 4 2025
https://jackohman.substack.
*Democracy Dies Like This
Nick Anderson
Pen Strokes
Jan 4 2025
https://nickanderson.substack.
*Silencing the Court Jesters.
10 years ago cartoonists were murdered for drawing offensive things. Things have not been getting better.
Jason Chatfield
Jan 5 2025
https://www.newyorkcartoons.
| |||||
| |||||
|
_tstmp_1737647232-80-0.png){kind=small}
