New York Times Cartoon Censorship Story – as seen by the right

You might expect conservative commentators to set aside rank partisanship in the face of rank censorship–especially when a “liberal” paper like The New York Times carries it out. And since I’ve always come out against campus “hate speech” strictures and other attempts to censor right-wing speech, you might expect to see a little gratitude coming from my fellow pundits–even if we don’t plan to vote for the same Yalie this fall.

You might expect that members of the media would be concerned when one of their own is silenced as the result of a concerted campaign of harrassment and intimidation by political ideologues. The same thing, after all, could happen to them.

You might expect–but you’d be wrong. The pro-war, Bush apologist New York Press favors censorship–and says so on Page 2 this week.

The generic warbloggers have the usual argument:

I don’t have any right to have my speech printed in the New York Times and neither does Rall.

Of course, no one has the “right” to be published anywhere. But only a simpleton, or a right-wing blogger typing in his parents’ basement in Tennessee, would fail to see the danger to a free media in an editor who caves into rank political pressure when making editing decisions. An independent press must be responsive to its readers, but that doesn’t mean running scared of a creator some 13 years after you started running his work because some people oppose his politics. If opinion mongers have to worry about getting fired every time they venture off the political mean, the next thing you know, the entire op-ed page will be covered with nothing but bland, middle-of-the-road moderates.

Oh.

Anyway, it’s more important than ever that those who believe that singling out a creator for censorship simply because he opposes Resident Bush speak out. If you haven’t done so already, please write the Times:

Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital

New York Times Letters to the Editor

Ombudsman Daniel Okrent

If the shoe were on the other ideological foot, if a strident conservative had been shitcanned from the Times website simply because liberals didn’t like him or her, you can be damned sure that I’d still be urging you to speak up.

Coming in May/June from Soft Skull:

Galleys will be available starting next week. If you’re a Big Important Media Personality (book critic, radio talk show host, Winona Ryder), drop me an email and I’ll send you one.

If you’re a reader, of course, you’re far more important than media types scoring free books they’ll sell to the used bookstore next week. But life is unfair. Which means you have to pay. But if you really want to make your purchase count, please pre-order WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIBERAL: HOW WE CAN TAKE AMERICA BACK FROM THE RIGHT now. You’ll save a few bucks, get your book before anyone else (April) and, best of all, increase sales during a critical time when stores are placing orders.

You were warned.

REAL AMERICANS ADMIT: THE WORST THING I’VE EVER DONE!, my Firecracker Alternative Press Award-winning debut graphic novel from 1996, is now out of print. If previous experience holds, they’ll float around used on eBay and zBooks for a few months, then vanish entirely.

Update: WAKING UP IN AMERICA & ALL THE RULES HAVE CHANGED

Some people reserved copies of my first book WAKING UP IN AMERICA (1992) but flaked out on sending their checks. (If you’ve sent me a payment but haven’t gotten your book yet, don’t freak out–I wait a week for checks to clear before Priority Mailing them.) Therefore there are still 9 copies left–and their flakiness is your reward!

ALL THE RULES HAVE CHANGED are going fast: I’ve got 13 left.

If you want either or both books, please (1) email me at chet@rall.com to say so, (2) send $35 for each book (includes shipping within United States, more if abroad) to PO Box 1134, New York NY 10027 and (3) include your mailing address and how you’d like it signed with your payment.

As I wrote earlier, when they’re gone, they’re gone. No more.

SPECIAL BOURGEOIS OFFER: I normally charge $400 and up for my original cartoons, but I’ll send you an original cartoon (choose any from the last year–provided, of course, that I still have it), and bothWAKING UP IN AMERICA and ALL THE RULES HAVE CHANGED for $300. Same procedure as above applies; offer expires when I say so here.

Tell Them We Won’t Shut Up!

Right-wing bloggers are at it again. It wasn’t enough to get my cartoons pulled from The New York Times–now they say my “whining” about it is unseemly. Of course, the warbloggers like to keep this tactic to themselves, they’re so damned good at it. But to hell with that.

If you’re tired of losing every cultural and political battle, then please join me in mimicking the relentlessness of the right. Write to the Times to let them know how you feel about them pulling my cartoons in response (solely, as they admit) due to Republican pressure:

Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital

New York Times Letters to the Editor

Ombudsman Daniel Okrent

I don’t stand to make a penny either way–this is solely about the First Amendment.

Chart o’ the Day

The above chart, which will be published in my upcoming book WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIBERAL, is one of my favorite things ever. It demonstrates that, on average, Republicans always preside over periods of increasing unemployment while Democrats usually preside over periods of economic boom. About the worst Democratic presidents ever do is under Carter, and even he only saw a tiny net increase in unemployment.

With luck Americans will someday notice that their best chance of making a living rests with electing Democrats.

New Column to Add Exclusive Details to NYT.com Cartoon Censorship Story

My syndicated column this week will include new details about New York Times Digital’s decision to censor my cartoons solely because right-wing bloggers deluged them with complaint letters. The column goes online late this evening and will be sent to subscribing newspapers this afternoon.

False Alarm on Yahoo

Many of you have written to ask whether Yahoo! was joining the New York Times in its indefensible decision to censor my cartoons solely due to content (the paper’s statement that my “tone” is incompatable with theirs falls apart when you consider that they’ve been running my work since 1991).

Not to worry.

Their tech people say that a glitch is responsible for bringing up a comic strip instead of my cartoons on the Yahoo! subscription page. It should be repaired shortly.

Thanks, More Please

Hundreds of people have written to the New York Times since the story broke in Editor & Publisher and elsewhere, including Tom Tomorrow’s popular blog, about the paper’s website’s decision to drop my cartoons–a decision that they admit was in reaction to getting tired of dealing with reader (i.e., right-wing) complaint emails.

I don’t know whether your letters will make a difference relative to getting them to pick up my cartoons again, but I do hope that it will make them think twice the next time they decide to do something similar. If censors face as many complaints from outraged readers as non-censors do from outraged nonreaders, the balance of power may begin to shift. In the meantime, I recommend keeping on the pressure. If you haven’t yet written to the Times, please do so. And if you’re just looking for a website that carries my cartoons, you can come here, or to the Washington Post, or any number of other sites.

NY Times Censorship: Please Tell Them To Find a Spine

If the usual pattern prevails, the New York Times website can rest assured that their cowardly and lazy decision to drop my cartoons as the result of a concerted right-wing blogger email campaign will go unpunished. People will move on, other issues will rise to the surface, my readers will learn to find my cartoons here on my website or at The Washington Post.

The Times has the right to cancel cartoons or columns for taste reasons, even for politics. But they admit that they’re responding directly to specific complaints of right-wing readers (probably non-readers, but whatever). Kowtowing to a special interest group sets a dangerous precedent. The only way they’ll reverse course is if you let them know. Please keep the pressure on by emailing the following addresses:

Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital

New York Times Letters to the Editor

Ombudsman Daniel Okrent

A reminder: I don’t stand to earn a penny if the Times runs my cartoons again. They weren’t paying me for them anyway. And I have never complained about being dropped before. This is solely about freedom of expression, and the Times’ unique intersection of cowardice and laziness. The Times cartoon section has been censored, Soviet-style: even my archives, the last five years of cartoons that they specifically approved of, have been excised by the Stalinists at Times Digital.