DRAWING POWER

Abstract

America prides itself on its tradition of free speech, yet it would be foolish to suggest that not all speech has been tolerated. Politicians and other influential figures have tried to silence editorial cartoonists for nearly as long as the country has existed. The corrupt New York City Tammany Hall political boss William Tweed summarized the simple potency of the editorial cartoon by saying: “Let's stop them damned pictures. I don't care what the papers write about me—my constituents can't read; but damn it, they can see pictures!” Tweed was unsuccessful in stopping Thomas Nast's cartoons, which have been credited, in part, with contributing to the politician's arrest. This article argues that politicians who fail in their attempt to silence editorial cartoons frame objectionable cartoons as attacks upon them. Politicians and their supporters are more successful in suppressing criticism when they can frame objectionable cartoons not as an attack on the individual who is being criticized but as an attack on the country—not in an individual framework but in a nationalistic framework. This works best when the country is under some sort of threat. This argument is particularly relevant because of President George W. Bush Administration's pattern of attacking the patriotism of critics of its War on Terrorism.