Ted Rall is a cartoonist, the sort that you’ll find in any ‘”independent” newspaper in big cities like fellow cartoonist Tom Tomorrow. He’s about as hard left as you can get, and became so offensive during the Bush administration that even left-leaning newspapers stopped carrying him. Recently, he wrote about how even allies are refusing to run some of his cartoons.
If you want a clue about how leftist Ted Rall is, he claims that Obama’s cabinet contained no liberals. This is a cabinet which includes some of the most hard left people in the country, even Maoists like Anita Dunn and advisers such as admitted communist Van Jones. Yet even newspapers as hard left a Mother Jones and The Nation are turning their backs on Rall. Why?
Has he become too hard left, has he become too radical for even these “progressive” organizations?
No, his crime is criticizing President Obama. Rall relates some of the responses from editors:
- “I am familiar with and enjoy your cartoons. However the readers of our site would not be comfortable with your (admittedly on point) criticism of Obama.”
- “Don’t be such a hater on O and we could use your stuff. Can’t you focus more on the GOP?”
- “Our first African-American president deserves a chance to clean up Bush’s mess without being attacked by us.”
Rall notes that these aren’t conservative editors who dislike him, but political allies:
We already know Ted Rall’s radical politics and tendency to use crude sophistry and put words in his opponents’ mouths to make his political case. That’s not anything new. What’s significant in Rall’s rant is that it tells us three important things about the news media today.
First, Ted Rall sees eye to eye with the publishers and editors of various news organizations when it comes to politics. The reason he was being published in newspapers such as the Washington Post was because of this fact and that he was viewed as being “hip.” He only got dropped when his cartoons became so offensive that readers raisd an outcry editors couldn’t ignore.
Second, Ted Rall has revealed how protective and in the tank for President Obama much the news media is. Even criticisms they agree with they don’t want to run if it hurts their favored politician. These editors want to protect President Obama even from just, reasonable criticism they cannot deny.
And third, Rall has shown that at least one editor requested more attacks on the Republican party, specifically. I somehow doubt that’s the only one who wants that, or even that requested it.
Ted Rall set out to complain about how unfair it is that some people don’t want to buy his work any more; tough breaks, that’s how the market system works. All he proved was how leftist and in the tank much of the news media actually is.
