Are editorial cartoons getting wimpy?
In the 1920s and “30s, when Herbert “Herblock” Block’s cartoons graced the Chicago Daily News’ editorial pages, cartoonist Vaughn Shoemaker’s work appeared on the paper’s front page. Herblock, 84, explains that in those days each of Chicago’s numerous newspapers had a blatant political slant and made no pretense of political objectivity. “They used to run front-page editorial cartoons in the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily News,” he says. “Sometimes papers ran front-page editorials, too.” In those pre-TV days, cartoons got royal treatment. “Editorial cartoons got more space then, too,” says Herblock, “as did comic strips. Newspapers played up cartoons.” Today, some cartoonists complain that newspapers have abandoned good editorial cartoons and strong opinions. “What the newspapers are doing is dumbing down,” says Paul Conrad, 70, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner from the Los Angeles Times. “The bottom line is money. They don’t want any problems with readers.” And many cartoonis
