"I Was Fired Because of Donald Trump"

June 16th, 2018, 9:30 pm

Well, I wasn't fired.

But Rob Rogers, formerly an editorial cartoonist with The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was fired from that paper for being critical of Trump and his Administration.

Rogers was an award-winning artist who has been with The Post-Gazette for 25 years. Up until recently, his cartoons would be published in the paper around five times every week.

However, according to Rogers, in March, a new Trump-supporting editor, Keith Burris, became the paper's editorial director. Afterwards, 19 of Rogers' cartoons and ideas were rejected. The picture above is an example of one of the rejected cartoons.

Rogers said, "the common theme in all the ones that have been rejected, I'd say 90% of them have something to do Trump."

This is distressing.

Editorial cartoonists are the court jesters of the news medium. They can say things that regular reporters can't in print. It is their job to provoke thought of our leaders. It's not their job to illustrate a publisher's politics.

During a time when a President is calling the news media "Our Country's biggest enemy," artists of all types should be supported, not fired for doing their jobs.

Be on the lookout for assaults to our freedom of expression. They could be the harbingers of worse-things to come.

Any reasonable comments are welcomed, even if they differ from my own.

JR

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A Sad Day For Freedom of The Press My sincerest best wishes for Bob Rogers. I was certain the Press was Free and able to say things, Editorial Cartoonists were able to satirize and call out a vile and corrupt Administration. Instead we find this happening, whats is this Mexico or some Banana Republic where Newspaper Employees are targets of opportunity? Someone should explair the First Amendment to that Editor. Actions of this type make me glad I am retired after working 27 years in the Industry and two of me Uncles retired after 25 years each. I foresaw this coming in the Mid Sized chain I worked for and saw it happening in another of the Nations largest chains when I worked there.
#$%& The Orange Orangutan in the White House.

@Dragonrider: I've been trying to hold back my full feelings about the direction the country has been traveling since Trump was elected, but it's getting harder and harder. The things going on are more than just unfortunate or even criminal... they are wrong. Is "evil" too strong or offensive to say?

It's not strong enough