WashingtonPost.com Drops Ted Rall's Cartoons

NEW YORK WashingtonPost.com is no longer running the cartoons of hard-hitting liberal Ted Rall.

Rall said he thinks the site dropped his work because of a Nov. 4 cartoon he did showing a drooling, mentally handicapped student taking over a classroom. "The idea was to draw an analogy to the electorate -- in essence, the idiots are now running the country," he told E&P.

"That cartoon certainly drew a significant amount of negative comment from our users," said WashingtonPost.com Executive Editor Doug Feaver when contacted by E&P. But he added that the decision to drop Rall was a "cumulative" one that had been building for a while.

"Ted Rall does very interesting work," Feaver said. "Some of it is not funny to an awful lot of people. We decided at the end of the day that it just did not fit the tone we wanted at WashingtonPost.com."

The rest is here:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000723114

Rall has burned a lot of bridges, especially with this cartoon attacking John Kerry:



Now that the election is over, maybe that bird has come home to roost.

You'll have to explain that to me. It seems to attack Kerry as a mentally unbalanced, racist, murdering flip-flopper and doesn't so much as mention the swiftboat people.

Agree with him or disagree, love him or hate him, but you have to admit he's nobody's lapdog.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

But that'll be fixed soon and Junior gone. Kind of like you very, very soon. :hi:

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Wow, you're famous!

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

:hi: Don't let the door hit ya.

You can bring all offensive materials and we can burn them!

Well, just until we can get those awful liberal media papers to stop printing treasonous and offensive cartoons.

Imagine! Oh, that reminds me, bring Jesus hating Beatle albums and CD's too.

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2715007&mesg_id=2715007>

I have to admit. There were days when I didn't care for his images or message.

But:

The arts define the edges of society, and we all decide where we fit in.

(edit quick spelling)

maybe i'm a little denser than usual

but overall, i'm a BIG rall fan

... inexcusably vicious. I consider the Rall toon you've exhibited nasty and intolerant. I don't blame the Post for dropping him. It's sad to lose his edginess -- but ultimately our side can't win by spitting harder than the opposition: we must win on the basis of our ideas.

as long as the electorate is mesmerized by the mytholigical, we'll always end up dripping in repuke spit.

But, the idea of the U.S. government and electorate being idiotic (based on the last election) hardly seems objectionable.

On Yahoo news. The New York times dropped him a while ago too.

Maybe the two papers could swap cartoonists….today’s p.o.s. from Ramirez depicted the Clinton Library as a strip club, but I’ve seen worst. Rarely do I ever see a favorable comment directed toward Ramirez in the “letters to the editor” section, yet I’ve seen many on the other end….go figure…

...he's odious and not funny.

I thought today's strip club cartoon was sort of funny, actually. A relatively lighthearted swipe at Bill. No one is really hurt by that one.

But the Usama bin Ladin with a Kerry button ones...

The Marines at Arlen Spector's door...

all sorts of crap.

constantly ignores the facts and put up extremely partisan and inflammatory cartoons. It is Limbaugh and O'Reilly type stupidity.
I think I'm gonna cancel my subscription and let them know that it is solely because they feature Ramirez.

there is absolutely nothing clever about his stuff, it's just hatemongering of the worst GOP kind

Not really that impressed with the replacements either. Rall was often over the top, but his characterization of bush as crazy third world military dictator were always hilarious to me.

I will not miss it one bit. Now, if they would just get rid of some of the rightwingers who right the news stories I would really be happy.

...but his kind of "discourse" is only making things worse.

Media sweeping just like the Bushies. Welcome to thoroughbred fascism.

He reminds me of a left-wing Ann Coulter. I don't really see what either add to public debate.

Too often he goes waaaaay over the line.

Oh, they didn't?

It's ok to make sex jokes about Clinton, but not ok to make fun of Bush? That liberal media!

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

fugg it...

I suppose you don't see the irony in your post, no?

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

..a tombstone. :)

and yeah, it gets a might ugly too.

Rall is a hateful wart of a human being.

A lot of people get Rall and what he portrays in his cartoons. You obviously don't. You mistake Rall's sharp and painful reflection of current events to be only his view judging by your ad hominem attack.

His cartoons are nothing less than a brutally honest reflection of the absurdity that is the Generalissimo El Busho and his evil junta.

Ted Rall rocks.

The guy makes fun of widows and dead firemen. Fuck him.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

the parents of a developmentally disabled child. It's like getting between a mama bear and her cub.

Another major newspaper site, NYTimes.com, dropped Rall this past winter (E&P, March 4) because it felt "some of his humor was not in keeping with the tone we try to set" -- words not that different than WashingtonPost.com used today. But Rall said at the time that NYTimes.com was tired of dealing with e-mail campaigns from conservatives who didn't like his work.

What tone is that? It is obvious that the only tone the Washington Post and the NY Times want to set is tone deaf. The same MSM media that were such willing cheerleaders of the Bush Administration as it marched towards war against Iraq is now more concerned about kow-towing to conservatives and keeping the American people properly sedated.

What's the point of freedom of the press when the only freedom is that of the owners to tailor the information the public gets to their ideological bent.

to this liberal.

It's like what happened to the Weavers during McCarthyism. Slowly but surely, they stopped getting gigs.

I'm unfamiliar with Rall's work, but a paper that tolerated eight years of vicious cartoons about Clinton should be a little more tolerant of the leftist equivalent.

Pearl cared more about shopping than her dead husband.

He's pure slime.

He's nuts. He sues at the drop of a hat, and has a paranoid obsession that Art Spiegleman is out to get him.

He was disgusting.

I don't like those offensive political cartoonists.

/sarcasm off

Sorry, but Rall doesn't do it for me often enough to make him worth my time.

We listen to the hatefuly bigoted rants of Coulter and her ilk without a question of censorship. Why not listen to all views.

Generally, I support artists' rights to portray what they wish and to sell that work. I dislike censorship. However, Rall really did go over the boundaries of civil behavior with his cartoon that attacked developmentally delayed people under the guise of attacking W. Even he realized that after hearing from enraged parents and enraged disabled people. I think it would have been better for Rall to have been put on hiatus than to be dropped permanently, though. People should be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes when they show a willingness to do so.

They are cowards..and want to emulate the Moonie Times.. (The really funny part.. The Moonie Times has NEVER made money and most of its "circulation numbers" are bogus..they give most of their papers away...it's a propaganda organ for the WH..and the Post wants to be just like them :puke:...)

The guy is good.

While they are getting rid of people at the post, I make the suggestion of getting rid of Anne Applebaum! Her columns have no logic and all they do is criticize Kerry supporters. Time for her to go! Also, can you guys please post this petition in its own thread--it is a petition on Nader's website calling for the impeachment of Bush! Thanks!

http://www.votenader.org/get_involved/impeach_view.php

www.dailyhowler.com
had a great column about her on WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2004

APPLEBAUM’S PIETY:There’s almost no way to be this daft—unless you’re a Washington journalist. We refer to Anne Applebaum’s column (in the Washington Post) in this morning’s Post, in which the siren of ruling-class piety mocks an intelligent Times editorial about our absurd voting systems. Try to believe that a sentient being dreamed up this kooky comparison:
APPLEBAUM (11/17/04): Two weeks after the election, the Internet rumor mill continues to spout stories of computer-stolen votes. No sooner are they disproved than others appear. Some are demanding an Ohio recount. Otherwise sober people are asking whether there can be smoke without fire. Last weekend the New York Times published an editorial that found !no evidence! of vote fraud but called electronic voting !a problem! all the same. After all, the editorial noted, there is !no way to be sure! that votes weren't changed !by secret software! inside the machines. If you're tempted to believe that analysis is rational, just ask yourself this question: Are you really sure that your bank isn't using secret software to steal $9.72 from your retirement account every week? And if the answer is no, why aren't you up in arms about that, too?
Typing from the far side of Neptune, Applebaum compares our current voting systems with the way your bank is handling your money. Have you checked to see if your bank is stealing your money? the deeply daft columnist types.
Could any comparison be less apt? No, you probably haven’t checked this week to see if your bank is stealing your money. But duh! The reason you haven’t checked is obvious—banks provide extensive paper trails, and a major bank would quickly be caught if it swiped that nine bucks every week. (As anyone except a “journalist” would know, many Americans do check their bank statements quite religiously.) And duh! Let’s note another fact which would be obvious to anyone outside Applebaum’s tribe. Here it is: If banks were allowed to run audit-free systems, many banks would of course steal your money! Only a fool would fail to know it. But Applebaum—like powdered elites through the annals of time—is paid good money to pretend not to know this. Instead, she rolls her eyes at the kooky crowd which is troubled by current voting arrangements. And just like that, she starts playing shrink. Try to believe that a sentient being typed up this daft diagnosis:

APPLEBAUM (continuing directly): Given our reliance on computerized accounting, the explanation for the American paranoia about computer voting cannot be rational.
As a recent observer correctly noted, there’s almost no way to be this daft—unless you’re a Washington journalist.
But Applebaum is more than a Washington journalist; she’s also part of a ruling elite, and her cohort has been busy this week mocking those who question the systems by which we conduct our elections. Indeed, the editorial which Applebaum scorns (see below)anticipated her mocking imagery, even as it made a point which would be obvious to anyone who understands the American system:

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL (11/14/04): Defenders of the system have been quick to dismiss questions like these as the work of ''conspiracy theorists,'' but that misses the point. Until our election system is improved—with better mechanics and greater transparency—we cannot expect voters to have full confidence in the announced results.
Duh! The American system is based on “transparency”—on those famous “checks and balances.” We don’t assume that the powerful play by the rules. Unless you’re part of Applebaum’s crowd, of course. In this case, your system is based on mocking those who promote the most basic understandings.
Applebaum’s column helps us remember who we are and where we live. No, we don’t live in the land of our civics texts, where eighth-grade children are falsely told that an eagle-eyed “press corps” looks out for their interests. And no, we aren’t part of a race—the human race—which has been falsely proclaimed, since the Dawn of the West, to be “the rational animal.” In point of fact, we live on a planet where ruling elites have always gamed the system their way; and we live on a planet in which those elites always go out and buy tribunes like Applebaum. So go ahead and stretch your horizons! Read the paragraph quoted above—and search for metaphors which help us see who we are and where we live. Alas! Elites have always typed daft agitprop to fool the peons they hope to suppress, and in the long run, the likes of Applebaum have always been overcome by force, by the will of the people.

There’s almost no way to be that daft—unless you’re part of a store-bought elite. The Applebaums will not be converted. They’ll type on until overcome.

POLISH YOUR PARANOIA: To better understand the machinations of Applebaum’s class, we recommend Perfectly Legal, by David Cay Johnston, a book we expect to discuss in the future. Weirdly, the Post forgot to review the book when it appeared at the start of the year. To hatch a conspiracy theory as to why this might be, we recommend the transcript of Johnston’s Booknotes appearance in April. To further hone your paranoia, you know what to do—just click here.(http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1776 )(Perfectly Legal:The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich- and Cheat Everyone Else)

Disloyalty will not be tolerated.

I bet they don't drop that idiotic strip, which isn't even funny.