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
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
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.
New York Times Ombudsman Replies to Your Complaints
NYT ombudsman David Okrent has posted the following statement at http://forums.nytimes.com/top/opinion/readersopinions/forums/thepubliceditor/danielokrent/index.html?offset=13&fid=.f555e99/13:
On Tuesday, March 2, cartoonist Ted Rall posted this on his “”:
If you read my cartoons at the New York Times website, you may have noticed a hole on the comics page where my work used to appear. It seems that, under the dismally lame cover of ‘moving in a different direction,’ my cartoons were the only feature out of 10 (all supplied by Universal Press Syndicate) that the Times saw fit to drop.
Rall went on to assert that although he believes a newspaper (or, implicitly, a Web site) has the right to publish what it wishes, he feels that The Times has dropped his work from NYTimes.com because “they’re annoyed by receiving so many e-mail complaints about my work — all of them motivated by partisan politics.”
The Times, of course, has a different story. Len Apcar, the editor responsible for NYTimes.com, issued a statement that explained his position. “After two years of monitoring cartoons by Ted Rall,” Apcar said in part, “we have decided that, while he often does good work, we found some of his humor was not in keeping with the tone we try to set for our Web site.”
Here is the full statement:
After two years of monitoring cartoons by Ted Rall we have decided that, while he often does good work, we found some of his humor was not in keeping with the tone we try to set for our Web site. As of late February, his cartoons are no longer available through our Web site. Readers wishing to read his cartoons can find them at www.tedrall.com.
While NYTimes.com and its parent company support the right of free expression, we also recognize an obligation to assure our users that what we publish, no matter what its origin, does not offend the reasonable sensibilities of our audience.
NYTimes.com is continually evaluating the tools and services we provide. We appreciate your feedback and will share it with our colleagues.
Separately, Apcar told me that “I enjoy cartoons and I certainly like to laugh but Ted Rall’s work often didn’t pass the laugh test. Worse, it was offensive too often.”
On principle, I hold with Apcar. Although I happen to think that Rall, while ferociously partisan, can be absolutely brilliant, a lot of his work just doesn’t fit in The Times’s self-defined environment. If you look at some of the cartoons NYTimes.com chose not to publish in the months before pulling the plug altogether, and if you’re familiar with the somewhat demure language and imagery the paper prefers, you will immediately see the disconnect. The following urls will point you to Rall pieces that Apcar and his associates objected to over the past few months, and whether or not you find them offensive (warning: you well might), they certainly aren’t Timesian:
www.ucomics.com/rallcom/2004/01/12/
www.ucomics.com/rallcom/2003/11/20/
www.ucomics.com/rallcom/2003/12/01/
They are clearly at odds with the tone of a paper that shrinks from language that wouldn’t bring a blush to the face of most 10-year-olds I know.
But I’m tempted to differ with Apcar’s solution. Why not just continue what he and his colleagues have been doing, rejecting Rall cartoons that don’t meet Times standards? It’s worked up until now. Then again, I’m not the one who would have to make the choice every day, and sometimes things like this can just make your head hurt. It’s not as if Ted Rall is disappearing from the Web; if you want your daily dose, go to www.tedrall.com. It’s a choice you can make, just as Len Apcar has made his.
It’s worth pointing out that Okrent disagrees with his paper’s final “solution” to the perceived “tone” problem with my cartoons. (Interestingly, the print edition of the Times doesn’t seem to have a problem with my work.) That said, if the Times prefers the “demure” language suitable for ten-year-old readers, it’s nice of them to say so.
As for the examples they posted, I stand by them. And they’ve all been published by many, many other daily newspapers, which might prompt the question: Where does the NY Times stand on the ideological spectrum? As the most small-c conservative newspaper in the United States?
Editor & Publisher Covers NYT.com Censorship
Their story is here. There’s also a mention on Jim Romenesko’s media industry news.
Here’s the lead:
NEW YORK—NYTimes.com said it canceled the use of Ted Rall’s editorial cartoons effective March 1 because they didn’t fit “the tone” of the popular Web site.
When asked why the decision was made, New York Times Digital Spokesperson Christine Mohan said in an e-mail: “After two years of monitoring cartoons by Ted Rall we decided that, while he often does good work, we found some of his humor was not in keeping with the tone we try to set for NYTimes.com … While NYTimes.com and its parent company support the right of free expression, we also recognize an obligation to assure our users that what we publish, no matter what its origin, does not offend the reasonable sensibilities of our audience.”
Boilerplate denial language, but notice the key points. “After two years…” What happened two years ago? “Terror Widows.” That controversial cartoon, which put me on right-wing hit lists, ran on March 30, 2002. “Reasonable sensibilities”?!? My work runs in numerous “family newspapers,” including the print edition of the New York Times itself where, for several years, it has been the most frequently reprinted cartoon in the paper.
Truth is, the “tone” of my work is not at issue here. Content is–specifically political content. The ONLY reason they’re dropping me is because they’re tired of dealing with Republican hate mail–most of it from people who don’t even read the New York Times, but fire off rote complaints against liberal bête noires as part of their daily regimen.
As I wrote before (scroll down), this isn’t about money. New York Times Digital wasn’t paying me any. It’s not even about exposure–online readers can find my cartoons at other websites, including those of prestigious daily newspapers that don’t have any problem with my “tone.”
I have to hand it to the right. While progressives throw up their hands and wonder at the dismal state of affairs in this country, they’re ceaselessly working to eliminate voices that try to move things in a different direction. That’s why Clear Channel Communications, for instance, retaliated against Howard Stern’s endorsement of John Kerry by dropping him. Had the same thing happened to Rush, right-wingers would have created a shitstorm, but not the left: Stern’s callers urged him to fight back. As he replied, there’s nothing he can do. In other words, it’s up to US to fight.
There’s nothing I can do either.
