- A letter from the prez
Working as an editorial cartoonist this year—working, that
is, if anyone is interested in employing you—is like living
inside Casey Kasem's brain: The hits keep on coming. Whether it's
Robert Ariail or Jim Borgman or John Branch or Gary Brookins or
Stuart Carlson or Richard Crowson or Bill Day or Eric Devericks
or Brian Duffy or Peter Dunlap-Shohl or Bill Garner or Steve Greenberg
or Lee Judge or Jim Lange or Drew Litton or Patrick O'Connor or
Dwane Powell or Ed Stein, watching one of these great cartoonists,
artists who developed close ties to their readers and communities,
get laid off—and their positions eliminated—would have
been terrible. We've lost 21 full-time staffers (including Chip
Bok, Ben Sargent and Tom Meyer, who took buyouts) since I took
the reins in September. Twenty-one! As you know, we didn't have
many staff jobs to begin with.
The damage to our profession ...
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- Awards: Steve Breen's
Very Good Year
San Diego cartoonist Steve Breen wins second Pulitzer, other awards
Steve Breen, the editorial cartoonist for The San Diego Union-Tribune,
has won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. It was
only the second time his newspaper has been awarded journalism's
highest honor and the second for Breen himself; he won while at
the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey in 1998.
In awarding the prize, judges noted Breen's “agile use of
a classic style to produce wide ranging cartoons that engage readers
with power, clarity and humor.”
Breen got the news of his second Pulitzer in a manner made for
one of his cartoons. He was looking under a hotel room couch in
Hawaii for his daughter's sandals as the family was preparing to
head home after a week-long vacation.
In a phone interview, he said: “I'm fully aware that not
every cartoon is Pulitzer material. That ...
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- Awards: More Winners
Chris Britt, who draws for the State Journal-Register in Illinois,
nabbed this year's SDX, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence,
given by the Society of Professional Journalists. The awards will
be presented during the SPJ Convention and National Journalism
Conference, August 27-30 in Indianapolis.
The Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism has named its
2009 winners, and among the distinguished journalists is Ed
Stein, former staff cartoonist at the now defunct Rocky Mountain
News.
Stein's work was recognized for “its graphic sophistication
covering the economy, torture and other crucial issues.”
The Aronson Awards have been presented since 1990 to journalists
who measure business, government and social affairs against clear
ideals of the common good. The awards are named in honor of James
Aronson, the distinguished Hunter College professor of ...
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- Awards: Scripps Howard
News
Mike Luckovich, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist of The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, won this year's Scripps Howard Foundation
National Journalism Awards for Editorial Cartooning.
Luckovich received $10,000 and a trophy for “his ability
to incite multiple emotions with the reading of a single cartoon.”
Other finalists for the prize included Don Asmussen of the San
Francisco Chronicle and Alexander Hunter of The Washington Times.
Winners were honored at a dinner on April 24, at the National
Press Club in Washington, D.C., and videos of the acceptance speeches
have been posted online at http://www.scripps.com/foundation/programs/nja/videos.html [As
always, Mike is his adroit and entertaining self.
—JP]
Grant Snider of The University News at the ...
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- Awards: RFK to Jack Ohman
Jack Ohman, of The Oregonian, is this year's recipient of the
RFK Journalism Award for Cartooning.
In citing his work, the judges stated: “Ohman's cartoons
tackle a range of difficult topics including poverty and unemployment
in Oregon, the practice of shuffling Oregon teachers suspected
of molesting children to other schools, rising college tuition
costs, and human rights in China. From civil rights to the election
of our nation's first black President, from ethanol to the struggles
of American
families in the economic downturn, his graphic
journalism on behalf of the downtrodden exudes an insightful sensitivity.”
The RFK Awards honors outstanding reporting on issues that reflect
Robert F. Kennedy's concerns, including human rights, social justice
and the power of individual action in the United States and around
the world. Winning pieces examine the causes, ...
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- Awards: Fischetti to
Judge
By Alan Gardner
Lee Judge, editorial cartoonist for the Kansas City Star, is this
year's winner of the John Fischetti award for excellence in editorial
cartooning. The winning cartoon shows a soldier's helmet perched
on a rifle with the caption
“Price of Gas.” This is the second such win by Lee.
He won the very first Fischetti award back in 1982.
“The timing is wonderful,” Lee says. “My job
has recently become part-time and to win a prestigious, national
award like this gives encouragement not only to me, but to the
people who fought to keep my cartoons in the paper. Editorial cartooning
is struggling to survive, not because it lacks popularity, but
because it's often not deemed absolutely crucial. I strongly disagree.
If we're in a battle for readers, why get rid of the one person
on a staff best equipped to compete with television and ...
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