Imagine the histrionics on the left if a conservative political cartoonist — yes, they exist (see, e.g., our own Jim Thompson) — drew a cartoon of, say, former president Joe Biden as a cognitively-vacant, clueless marionette, with radical-leftist puppeteers pulling his strings while intentionally destroying America as we know it.
Yet, taxpayer-supported PBS NewsHour on Friday celebrated the "artistic freedom" of left-wing political cartoonist Ann Telnaes (and others), whose "art" includes a political cartoon of President Donald Trump wielding a golden swastika-tipped baton.
The irony, of course, is that my depiction of Biden is realistic, while Telnaes' image of Trump is garbage.
Telnaes told PBS in part:
An editorial cartoon, even if the art is strong, if it doesn't have a strong point of view, then it fails. Of course, if your art's good, that's even better, because then that will grab the reader faster.
Not to nitpick, but compared to the artwork of sometimes-conservative political cartoonist Michael Ramirez, Telnnaes' art is also garbage.
PBS celebrates "artistic freedom."
— MikesRight (@RealLibSmacker) April 28, 2025
Political cartoonist Ann Telnaes:
"An editorial cartoon, even if the art is strong, if it doesn't have a strong point of view, then it fails. Of course, if your art's good, that's even better, because then that will grab the reader faster.… pic.twitter.com/Dgj91pUqbq
As reported by NewsBusters on Sunday, Telnaes — who resigned in a huff from the Washington Post when a cartoon mocking Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was rejected — was on Friday included in PBS’s “Art in Action” coverage, “exploring the intersection of art and democracy.”
PBS showed some of Telnaes's latest work, now available on Substack, including President Trump conducting at the Kennedy Center with a swastika-tipped baton.
PBS began:
"A picture is worth a thousand words." It's a well-worn phrase but there is special resonance when applied to editorial cartoons, a centuries-old tradition that is evolving as the media landscape itself does. Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown takes a closer look for our series, "Art in Action," exploring the intersection of art and democracy and our arts and culture series, CANVAS.
In addition to the quote in the above post from X, Telnaes also told PBS (emphasis, mine):
There's less tolerance for satire, because satire involves things that aren't necessarily easy for people to accept, depictions of people, criticizing people.
I had not planned to quit. I wanted to continue commenting on what I thought was important. And I just realized I can't work like that. Yes, I thought this was the beginning. This is like, it's not going to stop here.
Autocrats especially do not like editorial cartoons. They are the great equalizer, and they don't like being laughed at.
If editorial cartoonists all of a sudden go away, that means something else is following. Other voices will be silenced. And it's not that great a leap to go from an editorial cartoonist being silenced through threats or whatever to you sitting around having coffee with your friends and you're joking about politics nowadays, and you're making fun of the president or the prime minister or your local politician, and somebody reports you.
And then you get questioned about your political beliefs. It's not that big of a jump.
Oh, please. The gall of it all.
First, the left loses its bitter collective minds over political cartoons or even worse, political satire (think: "The Babylon Bee") critiquing or laughing at anything left-wing.
RELATED: Jon Stewart Beclowns Himself Into Next Week, Calls Trump's Bid to Defund NPR and PBS 'Authoritarian'
Second, depicting any U.S. president wielding a swastika, much less seriously being referred to, ad nauseam, as "Hitler" or a "fascist" is perfectly fine on the left. In fact, it's preferred.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.
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