Our cartoonists are doing the job our journalists are afraid to
Create to Liberate Idea No. 20
Every day, someone shares a political cartoon with the headline, “Our cartoonists are doing the job our journalists are afraid to.”
In this time of profit-driven journalism and media conglomerates, corporate interests and profitability have taken precedence over journalistic integrity.
The Bob Woodwards and Carl Bernsteins of the 1970s inspired a generation of journalists … but that profession has since been asphyxiated by ratings, rage, exaggerated Botox, visible facial fillers and extreme tanning.
Yet, peering through the clickbait headlines, ignored news and Mar-a-Lago faces, we can usually find the bright light of an editorial cartoonist shining through.
Here’s hoping that, on April 19 for Create to Liberate, political artists fill America’s social media feeds with their satirical art.
We keep hoping an artist will whip up a personification for the pejorative term “Woke Mind Virus.” Often wielded to mock or criticize progressive ideals, the term practically begs for personification by a skilled illustrator.
Satire complements good journalism. It allows illustrators and writers the freedom of artistic expression while offering plausible deniability, making drawings a powerful tool for addressing sensitive or controversial topics.
Hell, editorial cartoonists are journalists
So, people, take out your pencils, pens, watercolors and Bristol boards or graphics tablets and software and let the truth flow through the noise. Create to Liberate!
- “Join, or Die” by Benjamin Franklin (1754)
- “Under the Thumb” by Thomas Nast (1871)
- “What happened to the one we used to have?” by Herblock (1946)
- “What does the Q stand for?” by Jim Morin (2019)
- Assassination attempt by Michael de Adder (2024)
- “Bonespurs Spraytan” by Mike Faris (an Abbetuck member) and Charlie James (2025)
- “Authoritarian Playbook” by Nick Anderson (2025)
- “Tariffs” by Dave Whamond (2025)
We invite individual visual and performing artists, writers, bookstores, book clubs, brave non-profit or government organizations and other individuals or groups across the USA to independently “flood the zone” with creativity, for Create to Liberate, Saturday, April 19, 2025.
Think of the idea above as a pilot light for the creative fire within you (if yours needs to be lit.)
Follow Abbetuck on these social media platforms as well as on Substack.
Editorial cartoon by Ann Telnaes that was killed by “The Washington Post.”
2 Responses
I thought this campaign was really cool until I read this post. Journalists are doing important work that has a direct impact on moving the resistance forward. And they’re being attacked and dismantled by the same forces that are destroying America.
Why do you think we’re in the position we’re in? Because people aren’t paying attention and reading the news. They don’t know what’s really happening or how the government is really supposed to work because they look to TikTok for their “news”.
And journalists also need to make a living. Do you work for free?
Actually. I *do* work for free.
This website, its graphics, all its social media and web content (including the art activism ideas, like the one you take issue with) are my work.
And it generates no revenue.
I’m sorry you’re in a field of work that crashlanded with the advent of social media.
But I’ll look for coverage of today’s protests woven in and around the air- and print-time allocated to more profitable clickbait.