Thursday 18 October 2012

The New Age Jerm cartoons fail



Since the words in newspapers are pretty much obsolete now, cartoons, especially good ones provide a ray of sunshine everytime I pick up a tree murdering newspaper.  Not only because of their ability to sum up the general mood of the readers but can make really bold statements and mitigate them with humour.  This is why I was saddened to hear that the ANC house journal The New Age had terminated their contract with their cartoonist, Jeremy Nell because his political cartoons were "not aligned with the paper's vision and mission"

I have never actually seen The New Age paper with my naked eye so I only read his website and if the rejected cartoons are anything go on, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. It's also astounding that the editor of what is supposed to be a national daily newspaper doesn't "like cartoons that make political judgements or statements" tells everything you need to know about his organ.

Zapiro put it well, if you read that newspaper look forward to "non-thinking cartoons".  I do hope Jerm gets another gig where he'd be allowed to do what he does best.  I'd say letting him go would TNA's loss, but that would be to assume that they wanted funny and thought-provoking cartoons to start with.

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