Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
Updated 12:00pm 8/30/20: Cagle Cartoonist Emad Hajjaj was freed last night. His case was downgraded from terrorism and the military court to the Amman prosecutor, but he still faces trial and up to two years in prison for “slander and libel” according to an article in the Times of Israel.
Emad’s home newspaper Al-Araby has an article about Emad’s release and Human Rights Watch director, Joe Stork, “Calling a satirical cartoon a terrorism offence only confirms that Jordan intends to muzzle citizens who speak freely,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at the New York-based watchdog. “This arrest sends the message that Jordanian authorities would rather abuse the rights of their own citizens than risk offending a gulf leader’s feelings,” he added.
Emad’s cartoonist brother, Osama Hajjaj, who we also syndicate, sent me these photos of Emad just after his release.
Quoting from the Times of Israel article: “The decision to release Hajjaj came after the state security court prosecutor decided to change the accusation against him to slander and libel, and his case has been sent back to the Amman state prosecutor,” the judicial source said.
Rakan Saaydeh, the head of the country’s journalists’ union, confirmed the release and the new charges as (they) took custody of Hajjaj from the Balqa jail just northwest of Amman on Sunday.
“He will now appear before the Amman prosecution,” not the state security court, a military tribunal that deals with terrorism-related cases, Saaydeh told reporters.
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
Here are the ten most widely published cartoons of the week (August 22nd through August 29th, 2020). As usual, no drawings of president Trump were among the most popular with newspaper editors, even with the Republican convention this week. Six of the cartoons are light, life during the pandemic cartoons. Three are “back to school during the pandemic” cartoons, which remains the most popular topic with editors.
Our Top Ten is a measure of how many editors choose to reprint each of our cartoons, from the 62 cartoonists in our syndication package. Just about half of America’s daily, paid circulation newspapers (around 700 papers) subscribe to CagleCartoons.com.
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
Steve Sack ties for 6th place with a drawing of the White House that doesn’t show Trump – would fewer editors have reprinted this one if Trump was in it?
#6
Dave Granlund is also tied for 6th place, with the only hurricane cartoon.
#8
Jeff Koterba is tied for 8th place with his second cartoon in the Top Ten.
#8
Dave Whamond is tied for 8th place with his second cartoon on our most reprinted list. Dave could just as easily chosen to put Trump in the place of the Republican elephant, and if he did, I’ll bet the cartoon wouldn’t have made the Top Ten.
#10
Gary McCoy claims the ten spot with this Biden bashing cartoon. There are very few cartoons about Biden and editors clearly want more.
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The National Coalition Against Censorship has joined with ten other organizations to protest a Texas school district’s actions in withdrawing an assignment for 8th graders, in response to a complaint by police.
“NCAC calls upon the (Wylie school) board to rescind its ban on the cartoon, allowing the assignment to be completed. It should further publicly commit that the teacher will not be fired or otherwise punished. Finally, we urge you to reaffirm your obligation to present students with views from across the political spectrum and to establish procedures that guarantee teachers can operate free from the fear of political censorship.”
The organizations protesting the school district’s actions include:
American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom
National Council for the Social Studies
National Council of Teachers of English
PEN America Children’s and Young Adult Book Committee
PEN America and the Artists at Risk Connection
Cartoonists Rights Network International
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Freedom to Read Foundation
Index on Censorship
Here is NCAC’s letter:
August 26, 2020
David Vinson, Ph.D. Superintendent
Wylie Independent School District
951 South Ballard Avenue
Wylie, TX 75098
Re: Removal of Political Cartoon From School Website
Dear Dr. Vinson,
I am writing on behalf of the National Coalition Against Censorship and the other organizations signed below to protest the decision to remove from a school website an editorial cartoon that was part of a class assignment because it criticizes the use of violence against Black people over the course of American history, including violence by police.
NCAC is an alliance of 57 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. We promote freedom of thought, inquiry and expression for all Americans, including K-12 students, teachers, and staff.
Our CagleCartoonist David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star, who drew the cartoon that offended the police and the governor.
Based on news reports, it is our understanding that a social studies teacher at Cooper Junior High School posted two editorial cartoons as part of the assignment–the cartoon about racial violence and another depicting opposition to wearing a mask as protection against the Covid-19. The assignment was cancelled after the National Fraternal Order of Police complained that the cartoon about racial violence is “abhorrent and disturbing.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott has demanded that the teacher be fired and asked the Texas Education Agency to investigate.
Yet the teacher appears to have been following the curriculum established by the state board of education, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies. It requires middle school students to “discuss how and whether the actions of U.S. citizens and the local, state, and federal governments have achieved the ideals espoused in the founding documents.” It further requires them to “organize and interpret information from . . . visuals,” to “identify bias and points of view created by the historical context surrounding an event,” and to “evaluate the validity of a source based on corroboration with other sources and information about the author.”
The teacher at Cooper Junior High School asked students to write about the role that protest plays in democracy and about whether protest leads to change in society. In other words, it asked students to do exactly what the standards require them to do: “discuss how and whether the actions of U.S. citizens . . . have achieved the ideals espoused in the founding documents” The assignment included the two cartoons as examples of protest by people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. There was no effort to endorse either view.
However, the actions taken by school officials were anything but neutral. By cancelling the assignment, they expressed official disapproval of the ideas expressed by the cartoon depicting racial violence. As a result, they violated their duty as public officials. More than 75 years ago, the Supreme Court stated that “no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion,” and just three years ago the Court reiterated that ““If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”
The district’s actions create a dangerous precedent, putting teachers on notice that they cannot present any material that might be offensive to someone in the community. Just as teachers in San Francisco should feel free to show students a cartoon which argues that Blue Lives Matter, teachers in the Wylie ISD should be able to display a cartoon that argues that Black Lives Matter.
NCAC calls upon the board to rescind its ban on the cartoon, allowing the assignment to be completed. It should further publicly commit that the teacher will not be fired or otherwise punished. Finally, we urge you to reaffirm your obligation to present students with views from across the political spectrum and to establish procedures that guarantee teachers can operate free from the fear of political censorship.
Sincerely yours,
Christopher Finan
Executive Director
National Coalition Against Censorship
Co-signed by:
American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom
Cartoonists Rights Network International
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Freedom to Read Foundation
Index on Censorship
National Council for the Social Studies
National Council of Teachers of English
PEN America and the Artists at Risk Connection
PEN America Children’s and Young Adult Book Committee
Cc: Matt Atkins, Board President
Heather Leggett, Board Vice-President
Jacob Day, Board Secretary
Stacie Gooch, Board Member
Barbara Goss, Board Member
Mitch Herzog, Board Member
Stacie Smith, Board Member
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
Update 8/30/20: Emad is freed. He still faces trial and a possible two years in prison for his cartoon. Read more here.
My friend and longtime CagleCartoonist Emad Hajjaj was arrested Wednesday in his home country of Jordan. He is charged with the “cybercrime” of “insulting an Arab country” and faces up to five years in prison for drawing an “offensive” cartoon criticizing Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates. Emad was arrested five hours after posting the cartoon to his newspaper site.
CagleCartoons.com has syndicated Emad’s work to newspapers in America and around the world for the past fifteen years. He is a dear friend of mine and of many of the CagleCartoonists who have partied with Emad on our annual trips to the cartoon festival in St Just le Martel, France. Emad is the president of the Jordanian Cartoonists Association and cartoonists in Jordan have been protesting Emad’s arrest.
Emad’s brother Osama Hajjaj, who is also an editorial cartoonist that CagleCartoons.com syndicates, sent me a photo of Emad’s arrest.
Emad’s cartoon depicts UAE leader, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, commonly called “MBZ”, holding an Israeli dove that has spit on his face, with the spittle in the shape of a US F-35 fighter jet and labeled “spit 35” in Arabic. The US recently brokered a treaty between Israel and the UAE, and in a separate but possibly related deal the US agreed to sell advanced F-35 jets to the UAE. Israel is opposing the sale, arguing that Israel’s defense advantage in the region would be compromised if UAE gets the jets. Emad’s drawing shows that Israel has embarrassed MBZ by blocking the sale after UAE agreed to the peace deal
Al-Araby writes that Emad was referred to the “notorious State Security Court” by Amman’s Attorney General. “The SSC – whose judges are appointed by the prime minister – has jurisdiction over crimes including drugs, explosives, weapons, espionage and high treason, however it has increasingly been used to try peaceful protesters and government critics.”
“The country’s infamous 2015 cybercrimes law was widely criticized by rights groups, who say it is a pretext to crack down on any individual who criticizes the government. Amendments added to the law in 2018 also made the distribution of articles considered slanderous punishable with a prison sentence.”
Emad is being held in jail for up to fourteen days, pending the conclusion of an investigation, after that Emad may face charges and a possible five year prison sentence.
UPDATED 8/27/20 1:00pm PDT:According to a Committee to Protect Journalists article quoting the Center for Defending the Freedom of Journalists director, Nidal Mansour, Emad was brought to the prosecutor’s office today and charged with “disturbing relations with a sister country” under the country’s counter-terrorism law,” “If convicted, Hajjaj could face a minimum of 10 years hard labor, according to 2014 amendments to the counter-terrorism law.” “The public prosecutor’s office ordered Hajjaj to be detained for 14 days and transferred him to Salt Prison, northwest of Amman.”
In the group photo below, Emad is at the right, I’m second from the right and Emad’s cartoonist brother Osama is second from the left. We’re pictured with Mexican cartoonists at CartónClub’s La Linea del Fuego exhibition at the El Universal newspaper in Mexico City a couple of years ago. Emad is friends with cartoonists around the globe and we’ve had a great time traveling together to exotic, cartooning destinations. Since Emad is everyone’s friend in our tight-knit, global community of editorial cartoonists, his arrest comes as a quite a shock in our small world.
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
Here is a column that I wrote for the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram; see it on their site here. The column will run in their print edition Wednesday or Thursday. The Star-Telegram is the major metro daily newspaper in the area of the Wylie School District, in Texas.
A few months ago, a flood of similar editorial cartoons were published, criticizing police brutality after George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons drew a cartoon showing white oppressors over the years, ranging from a slave trader to a member of the Klu Klux Klan, kneeling on the neck of a Black man who is saying, “I can’t breathe.”
The final panel in the cartoon shows the infamous image of a Minneapolis officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
I run a newspaper syndicate, CagleCartoons.com, that distributes Fitzsimmons’ work. Over half of America’s daily, paid-circulation newspapers, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, subscribe to our service. Fitzsimmons is one of the most popular editorial cartoonists in the country.
A teacher posted Fitzsimmons’ cartoon on the Wylie district’s website as part of an assignment for eighth-grade students. In a letter to the district, National Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Joe Gamaldi demanded an apology for posting a “abhorrent and disturbing” cartoon.
“We are willing to sit down with anyone and have a fact-based conversation about our profession, but divisiveness like your teachers showed does nothing to move that conversation forward,” Gamaldi wrote.
Fitzsimmons noted that the day after he saw Gamaldi’s indignant tweet, a Wisconsin cop shot a Black father several times in the back. In front of his children.
“This cartoon was my response to the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police officer, diagramming the historic roots of our systemic racism,” Fitzsimmons said. “Perhaps it requires too much moral courage or honest clear-eyed reflection for the National Fraternal Order of Police to funnel their fury at the few racist police officers who disgrace their oath and their badges by disproportionately murdering African Americans.”
Abbott tweeted that the teacher should be fired and called for the Texas Education Agency to investigate. Fitzsimmons called Abbott a “red meat vampire.” “Shame on him, calling for that teacher’s head on a pike.”
The interpretation of an editorial cartoon is part of state-mandated AP History testing in 8th and 11th grade throughout America. School textbooks that “teach to the test” are big clients for editorial cartoonists. Some of Fitzsimmons’ best clients for licensing cartoons are test-preparation companies.
It is the role of eighth-grade teachers to prepare students for these tests and teach them to evaluate controversies in the news by exposing them to different points of view about the issues of the day. There’s no better way to do that than through editorial cartoons. Fitzsimmons’ cartoons are widely used in middle and high school curriculums, not only in the U.S., but around the world.
David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson
Fitzsimmons is among the most republished editorial cartoonists in the country, and this cartoon in particular was printed widely in newspapers.
The visual metaphors that editorial cartoonists use can be difficult for some students to understand, and the study of cartoons in schools most often involves the “interpretation” of the cartoon. Cartoonists’ email boxes are filled with variations of a common message: “Please explain your cartoon to me. My paper is due tomorrow.”
Classroom discussions of “what did the cartoonist mean by this?” effectively engage students and prompt them to think about issues from different perspectives.
The Wylie district apologized for using the cartoon. But Fitzsimmons asked: “And what did we learn, children? We must not criticize law enforcement. Ever. Sacred cow.”
Cartoons about issues that don’t evoke passionate views on both sides of an issue don’t provide valuable lessons. The school district is teaching the wrong lesson by removing Fitzsimmons’ cartoon and apologizing.
Fitzsimmons and I give the teacher who used this cartoon an “A” for her assignment. The timid school district, the National Fraternal Order of Police and Abbott each get an “F.”
This is what the column looked like in the newspaper:
This article from television station WFAA tells much more about the school assignment that included David’s cartoon, among others. The assignment “was designed to start a conversation about the Bill of Rights, protests, democracy and freedom of speech.”
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
Here are the ten most widely published cartoons of the week (August 15th through August 22nd, 2020). As usual, no drawings of president Trump were among the most popular with newspaper editors. No cartoons about the Democratic Convention, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris got much ink. Steve Bannon’s arrest garnered some cartoons but got few reprints. Foreign cartoonists drawing about Belarus and the poisoning of a top Russian dissident were ignored by editors.
The top performing cartoons this week are a clear lesson in what editors want now: light cartoons about the tough times Americans live in. There are four pandemic/back-to-school cartoons on the list this week, which remains the most popular topic with editors, as it has been for the past three months.
The CagleCartoonists who are usually the most reprinted were again the most reprinted this week. Congratulations to the four cartoonists who each have two cartoons in the Top Ten, Dave Whamond (#1 and #8), Jeff Koterba (#2 and #4), Steve Sack (#5 and #9) and Dave Granlund (#5 and #7). And kudos to the two other cartoonists who made the most reprinted list this week, John Darkow and Adam Zyglis!
Our Top Ten is a measure of how many editors choose to reprint each of our cartoons, from the 62 cartoonists in our syndication package. Just about half of America’s daily, paid circulation newspapers (around 700 papers) subscribe to CagleCartoons.com.
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
Congratulations to Dave Whamond who drew the #1 most reprinted cartoon this week, the first of Dave’s two cartoons in the Top Ten!
#2
Jeff Koterba takes second place with the first of two cartoons in the Top Ten, and the best performance by a CagleCartoonist this week for overall reprints.
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There has been an interesting, testy confrontation at a school district in Texas about this cartoon by Arizona Daily Star Cartoonist, David Fitzsimmons.
My syndicate distributes David’s cartoons to over half of America’s daily, paid-circulation newspapers who subscribe to our service, including The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, not far from the Wylie Independent School District. A teacher posted David’s cartoon on the “Wylie ISD” Web site as part of an assignment for 8th grade students.
Testy police were quick to denounce the cartoon and the thin-skinned school district responded by taking the cartoon down and apologizing. In a letter to the school district, Joe Gamaldi, of the National Fraternal Order of Police, asked the district for an apology for posting this “abhorrent and disturbing” cartoon, writing, “We are willing to sit down with anyone and have a fact-based conversation about our profession, but divisiveness like your teachers showed does nothing to move that conversation forward.” The police organization then tweeted that the district had apologized and would also apologize to parents.
“This cartoon was my response to the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police officer depicted in the cartoon, which diagrams the historic roots of our systemic racism. I’m impressed the National Fraternal Order of Police is directing its fury at an illustration revealing how our present horrors are mere echoes of our cruel past. Perhaps it requires too much moral courage, or honest clear-eyed reflection, for the National Fraternal Order of Police to funnel their fury at the few racist police officers who disgrace their oath and their badges by disproportionately murdering African Americans.”
The interpretation of an editorial cartoon is part of state mandated AP History testing in 8th and 11th grade throughout America. Some of David’s biggest clients are the test preparation organizations, like Pearson Education, that license his editorial cartoons for these tests. It is the role of 8th grade teachers to both prepare students for these tests and to prepare them to evaluate controversies in the news by exposing them to different points of view about the issues of the day; there is no better way to do that than through editorial cartoons. David’s cartoons are widely used in middle and high school curriculums, not only in the USA, but around the world. David is among the most republished American editorial cartoonists. This cartoon, in particular, was widely reprinted in newspapers across our nation.
Cartoons about issues that don’t evoke passionate views on both sides of an issue don’t provide valuable lessons. The school district is teaching the wrong lesson by removing David’s cartoon and apologizing.
I give the teacher who used this cartoon as a teaching tool an “A” for her assignment. The timid school district and the National Fraternal Order of Police get an “F”.
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
The Democratic Convention wraps up tonight, and California Senator Kamala Harris has accepted the Vice Presidential nomination. Here’s my Kamala and Joe in the shadow convention cartoon.
I did a color version, but I like the black and white better.
I’ll be reluctantly voting for Biden/Harris as the lesser of two evils. I’ve never forgiven Biden for his repugnant behavior in the Anita Hill hearing. And I don’t like Kamala Harris’ zeal in jailing thousands of non-violent marijuana offenders in California.
Here are my favorite Biden/Harris cartoons from the convention!
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It is predicted to hit 109ºF (43ºC) today at my house in Woodland Hills, California. Yesterday we saw the all time, USA, high temperature of 130º (54C) in Death Valley California – today will be even hotter! We’ve had rolling blackouts as the electrical grid is overloaded and fires are popping up around the state, with a fire tornado filmed and lightening strikes setting many small fires. It is predicted to be hot like this for the next three days.
So, on a day like this I turn to our oldies. Even with the Post Office crisis and virtual Democratic Convention raging, it is hard to think of anything other than the heat. I went back over the past 20 years of cartoons looking for some nice, heat wave cartoons that didn’t look too stale, and I reposted them for newspapers today. Here’s my own Republicans and Global Warming denial cartoon, and my favorite, evergreen heat wave cartoons, rereleased today.
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I was flipping through some of my oldies and I noticed something interesting – that I was drawing cartoons about social distancing and the pandemic issues that sports are dealing with now, and I drew these cartoons 25 years ago!
I used to draw an advertising, sports, comic strip that ran weekly in USA Today across the top of one of their sports pages. This was a strip called “Out of Bounds” that I drew for Sega. The ads were wide and thin. Each one had to be drawn on deadline to be topical with the sports news of the day, and the advertising agency had to approve it in advance, so my deadlines were tight. And each comic had to promote a SEGA Sports product.
What I found interesting, looking back on these, is that my gags were most often about reworking sports so players could play online and fans could participate online, without physical contact. I guess this was just the natural gag, since I was selling game systems, but it struck me funny that I was 25 years ahead of my time. Here are a couple of examples from baseball and football season.
Of course, those people in the stands are just paper cut-outs.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
(That Cleveland Dog Pound needs masks and more distancing.)
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Here are the ten most widely published cartoons of the week (August 8th through August 15th, 2020). As usual, cartoonists drew president Trump in many cartoons, but no drawings of Trump were among the most popular with newspaper editors.
Dave Granlund is on top this week with the #1 and #6 cartoons! Dave Whamond also has an impressive showing with two cartoons in the Top Ten.
Our Top Ten is a measure of how many editors choose to reprint each of our cartoons, from the 62 cartoonists in our syndication package. Just about half of America’s daily, paid circulation newspapers (around 700 papers) subscribe to CagleCartoons.com.
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
Congratulations to Dave Granlund who drew the #1 most reprinted cartoon this week, the first of two cartoons in the Top Ten!
#2
Chris Weyant takes second place with one of the early Kamala Harris cartoons that editors were looking for.
#3
Jeff Koterba, who is on vacation, takes 3rd place with this cartoon that he drew and submitted in advance.
#4
Congratulations to John Darkow who snags 4th place.
#5
Dave Whamond claims 4th place with his first of two cartoons in the Top Ten this week.
#6
Congratulations yet again to Dave Granlund for his second of two cartoons in the Top Ten. This was the first, new Kamala Harris cartoon posted after see selection as Biden’s VP nominee, something that editors were eager to see.
#6
Kudos to Ed Wexler who is tied for #6 with his first “couple watching TV” cartoon. I warned Ed that “couples watching TV” cartoons are addictive and may consume him (as happened to me).
#8
I’m happy to see my buddy Randy Enos on the Top Ten this week!
#9
Dave Whamond takes the #9 spot with his second cartoon in the Top Ten.
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Updated 12:00pm 8/30/20: Cagle Cartoonist 
However, the actions taken by school officials were anything but neutral. By cancelling the assignment, they expressed official disapproval of the ideas expressed by the cartoon depicting racial violence. As a result, they violated their duty as public officials. More than 75 years ago, the Supreme Court stated that “no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion,” and just three years ago the Court reiterated that ““If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”
Our reader supported site, 
Testy police were quick to denounce the cartoon and the thin-skinned school district responded by taking the cartoon down and apologizing. In a letter to the school district, Joe Gamaldi, of the National Fraternal Order of Police, asked the district for an apology for posting this “abhorrent and disturbing” cartoon, writing, “We are willing to sit down with anyone and have a fact-based conversation about our profession, but divisiveness like your teachers showed does nothing to move that conversation forward.” The police organization then tweeted that the district had apologized and would also apologize to parents.
