Satire Conference, Opening Night

The two-day symposium on satire in political cartooning at the University of Minnesota began last night with a meet-and-greet and a short panel presentation, including local cartoonist Steve Sack, seen here with fellow panelists Ann Telnaes and comics historian and attorney Michael Kahn.

The cartoons are fun, but the topic is serious and the occasion, the 30th anniversary of the Falwell/Hustler decision, is extraordinarily relevant, given both the repression of political cartoons and cartoonists elsewhere in the world and our current president's professed willingness to sue or shut down unfriendly media.

And the gathering of talent is such that, as a group of 10 or 12 of us sat around afterwards, my son leaned over to quietly ask me if we were the only two there without Pulitzers, which I'm pretty sure we were.

Satirical cartoons, Kahn pointed out in his presentation, go back a long way, at least to Martin Luther's attacks on the corrupt church of his era, and operate largely on the principle encapsulated in Tweed's famous rant about Thomas Nast that he didn't care what was written about him because his constituents didn't read but they could look at those damned pictures.

And, as Telnaes noted, while Trump hasn't lashed out at cartoonists in particular, it may only be because he doesn't see the cartoons, since he doesn't read, either, and gets his news from television.

Still, his accusations of "fake media" and even "enemy of the people" is evidence that the Falwell/Hustler decision matters a great deal in the current climate. Both she and Sack spoke of going to France in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings and speaking with cartoonists who, though defiant, face prison and worse for their work.

"I have developed a really deep respect for the Justices and what they did for our profession," she said, saying that, had the decision gone the other way, "this could be a very different atmosphere."

Sack pointed out that, before the Internet and in the days when there were 350 political cartoonists on staffs around the country, rather than the current 50, political cartooning was more local, in that you had to either find a newsstand with out-of-town papers or wait for Newsweek to see what other people were doing.

Now, he said, he sees more cartoons in a week than he used to see in months, but the feedback by phone calls and mail has dropped and comments now are attached to on-line postings and are largely vitriol.

However, on a hopeful note, he added that the feedback, both in complaints and in people calling with ideas for cartoons (which cartoonists don't use, by the way) would normally peak during a presidential campaign.

Today, he said, it's more constant and people seem more engaged. He also reported, and Telnaes confirmed, getting more "Thank you for keeping me sane" notes from readers, which they agreed was the kind of feedback that matters.

"I don't know if we have that much power," he admitted. "Nast had the power to bring down the Tweed ring, but the media landscape has changed since those days."

He noted that "the satire military industrial complex" had hurled their best at Trump during the 2016 campaign, including conservatives until he gained the nomination, but he won the election.

However, he also said, events like the Women's March and the current activism by high school students are encouraging.

Both cartoonists said they didn't really expect to change minds, but rather to buoy up the spirits of those who resist, and perhaps to arm them with arguments they hadn't considered.

The real action begins today and you may expect an over-length piece tomorrow, given the number of panels and cartoonists yet to come.

Comments

[Dave from Philadelphia]

Thank you Mike for your reporting of this, and other, conferences. I always find them interesting and occasionally thought provoking.

[Paul Berge]

Thanks for covering this. Really wish I could be there, but I'm needed at home